More than one in three regular savers has avoided investing because there are too many funds to choose from, they say.

Some 31% say they would prefer a choice of fewer than 50 funds.

Two-thirds of investors (65%) also say a guarantee to at least get back the money they invested into a fund is more important than maximising returns, according to a survey of 2,000 adults.

More than 4.4m regular savers say they find it hard to select from the thousands of funds on offer, research from Scottish Friendly found, and many do not know where to start.

More than one in three (35.7%) UK adults who regularly save £100 a month say they find the number of funds available confusing.

Nearly a third (31.1%) of investors would prefer a choice of fewer than 50 funds. There are over 2,000 plus funds available in the wider market although a number of D2C fund supermarkets now over ‘select’ lists of as few as 50 funds.

Scottish Friendly said its research also highlighted how risk adverse investors are in the current climate.

Kevin Brown, savings specialist at Scottish Friendly, said: “Many potential investors are telling us that too much choice can be off-putting and confusing.

“There are thousands of funds on offer to UK investors, so it’s no surprise so many people feel confused. At the end of the day, how is someone who is new to investing meant to wade through all of these choices and put together their own portfolio?

Scottish Friendly’s consumer survey was conducted by OnePoll earlier this month. The nationally-representative sample size was 2,000 UK adults who save at least £100 a month.