The number of advisers who expect to increase their clients’ cash holdings in the next six months is set to double.

That is according to the NS&I Financial Advice Barometer survey, released today.

Some 22% said they expected to increase their clients’ cash holdings in the next six months compared to the last time the survey was conducted in October 2016, when the figure was 11%.

This score from NS&I’s latest quarterly survey, conducted in January 2017, was the highest recorded since the survey began in February 2016, when 18% of advisers responded in the same way.

NS&I’s survey of financial advisers also shows that for the fifth quarter in a row, security remained the most important priority cited by advisers on behalf of their clients in terms of savings and investment options. Some 47% of advisers ranked ‘security’ (protecting assets) as their most important priority.

Advisers were split on whether the Personal Savings Allowance has permanently diminished the attractiveness of cash ISAs for their clients. Some 45% of respondents thought that cash ISAs had lost their lustre, citing, among a number of reasons, the fact that people can now earn more interest tax-free in non-ISA accounts that have higher investment limits, than is the case with cash ISAs.

Some 55% of respondents thought that cash ISAs remained attractive, with several respondents citing their familiarity and simplicity.

Other key survey findings included that 91% of advisers are currently either ‘very confident’ (38%) or ‘fairly confident’ (53%) about the future prospects for the financial advice industry. This was the highest score recorded by the survey for confidence in the future of the industry since the Financial Advice Barometer began in February 2016.

Andrew Pike, head of intermediary relationships at NS&I, said: “Cash is back – or perhaps had never gone away. The rise in the proportion of advisers saying that they expect to increase their clients’ cash holdings in the next six months shows that cash remains an important and robust element of any balanced investment portfolio. The latest NS&I survey also shows that most advisers still view cash ISAs as an attractive investment, despite the Personal Savings Allowance being introduced.”