Most recommended
Royal London and Aviva remain the providers most recommended by advisers, but with reduced support this time. AJ Bell experienced an increase in support and moved ahead of Quilter and Prudential in ranked position.
Preferred Providers
Prudential was the top choice for onshore bonds by a long chalk; and Canada Life International and Prudential dominated the table for international bonds.
Most popular provider
Prudential continues to be the most popular recommended provider for onshore bonds, but with reduced support. Many of the established providers had less support; indeed, only HSBC Life and Foresters Friendly Society had increased interest shown in them.
The top three
The top three positions for performance in the various categories were dominated by Canada Life (UK) and Utmost PanEurope (Ire) with six top three positions each. Healthy Investment (UK) and Transact (IoM) were also well represented.
- While personal pensions, drawdown and self-invested personal pensions remain the most popular individual pension products with advisers, the last year has seen a decrease in interest for drawdown and an increase in interest in annuities.
- 18 pension providers received sufficient nominations as preferred providers to enable us to compute provider-specific satisfaction. Royal London, Aviva and Quilter received most nominations as preferred providers, but Royal London and Quilter received fewer nominations than last year, while Aviva received more. Transact also seemed to attract less support this time.
- Most categories increased their importance scores this time. Pension freedom servicing and Product and proposition were again ranked the most important disciplines, and Provider staff the least.
- Weighted satisfaction scores increased this year for most categories by, on average, 3%. There is a fair correlation between weighted satisfaction and importance with top two categories for importance – Product and proposition and Pension freedom servicing – receiving some of the highest satisfaction scores. Typically, satisfaction is in the mid-80% range, representing a good result for the industry.
- abrdn (for Wrap), Fidelity Adviser Solutions and Royal London achieved the most top three positions for performance across all categories of service.
- The crossmatch of unweighted satisfaction with ranked importance revealed an exceptionally good correlation for the industry with expectations being matched or exceeded for six out of the seven categories
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