Financial Planners believe business growth and efficiency to be the biggest challenges they face in 2020, according to a new survey.

In the survey from platform Nucleus, 30% of Financial Planners identified business growth and efficiency as their main concerns compared with 19% in 2019.

Regulation was a lesser concern to respondents than in 2019. Just 19% felt regulation was their primary business concern, a reduction from 27% in 2018.

An increasing demand for advice was highlighted as a big area of opportunity. The need for Financial Planning services was listed as a major opportunity for 45% of respondents, compared with 39% in 2019.

According to Nucleus, the survey pointed to signs of increased efficiency but also suggested Financial Planners continued to struggle with capacity issues.

Time spent on compliance was the biggest driver of capacity issues, with 51% citing time spent on compliance limiting their productivity.

Securing professional indemnity insurance was also a challenge with 52% of those surveyed finding securing cover more difficult and 62% finding it much more expensive. Half of all respondents found the renewal process more difficult than 2019.

Barry Neilson, chief customer officer at Nucleus, said: “Our latest census has found advisers are increasingly concerned about their ability to sustain and grow their current capacity.

"But it has also shown they are increasingly looking for new creative ways to communicate with clients, which will enable them to increase the time spent on their business. Advisers’ experience through Covid-19 is likely to embed this shift towards virtual communication and allow advisers to more frequently check in with their clients, perhaps instead of holding one or two face-to face meetings a year.”

The census survey saw responses from over 180 Financial Planners that use the Nucleus platform.