Robo-advisers will have a hard time cracking the over-50s market with most in this demographic likely to reject an online-only automated service, according to new research.

The study found that 82% of over-50s would not take financial advice from a robo-adviser and (88%) would be unwilling to give details of their finances to a robo firm.

Adviser fintech firm Visible Capital researched 1,000 UK adults aged 50 and above with the bulk of respondents aged 60 to 80. Some 38% said they can currently access financial advice through an adviser or accountant.

Visible says the aversion to robo advice comes despite over 60% of people surveyed saying that they had relied more on technology during the pandemic and were comfortable with technology. 

Visible believes the research provides encouragement to advisers considering a hybrid service.

Among the over-50s, 84% were using online services for general banking, 52% for insurance, 44% savings and investments, 64% for payments and transfers and 55% were managing their credit cards digitally. Despite this only 15% used online services for advice.   

A fifth (20%) of respondents said they trusted technology less coming out of the pandemic.

Research was conducted by Silversurfers among a sample of 1000+ individuals over the age of 50.

Ross Laurie, CEO of Visible Capital, said: “A large proportion of respondents have been using technology more in the past year, and are happy using digital resources for general banking, payments and transfers and managing their savings and ISAs, yet when it comes to financial advice they were less keen to use a robo-adviser.

“There is an opportunity now for financial advice firms to steal a march on the market by taking the trusted face-to-face advice format and combining it with available technology to deliver a hybrid service which blends the benefits of automation and online finance with personal touch advice to offer a best of both worlds approach.”

He added: “The results of our survey show that age 50+ savers and investors are no strangers to using digital services. But, as yet, they have not taken advantage of online financial advice. Our survey results show that trust is a major factor here. Utilising the tools and services with which this group are already familiar – online banking, investing, saving, etc, – advice firms can offer this day-to-day technology with the kind of personal, trusted human advice which many of them already value.

“Advisers have a real opportunity to step into the hybrid advice space and claim it as their own.”  

• The full research report can be downloaded here: http://visiblecapital.io/blog/article/2021-50s-Research/