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Nearly half of UK investors put their trust in social media, finfluencers and AI tools when making financial decisions, as unregulated sources continue to pull consumers away from professional advice.
Two-fifths of UK investors have used social media to inform financial decisions over the past two years in spite of nearly 50 per cent of consumers expressing trust in financial advisers, new research from investment platform Fidelity International found.
Just one in three investors who responded to Fidelity’s survey had used a professional qualified adviser in the past two years to inform a financial decision, while more than 60 per cent had never accessed the advice system, indicating many are unable to access professional advice.
“Many are simply not in a position to access professional advice,” said Andrew Oxlade, investment director at Fidelity International.
“In the absence of advice, people are turning to other channels, some reliable, but many unregulated and unverified.”
Fidelity surveyed one thousand UK investors for its analysis.
While two in five survey respondents opted to gather guidance from money advice websites, alongside financial media and asking family and friends, others were flocking to the emerging unverified information on social media platforms.
The reach of financial influencers, or so-called “finfluencers”, continues to grow, with 12 per cent gathering information from a range of platforms including X, Instagram and TikTok.
The Financial Conduct Authority has recently been working on cracking down on rogue finfluencers, having previously taken action against nine individuals for promoting an unauthorised trading scheme as well as making three arrests during an action week at the start of June.
The FCA also issued 50 warning alerts during its action week which it said would lead to more than 650 requests to remove content from social media, according to the authority.
Similarly, 13 per cent of respondents to Fidelity’s survey trusted top results on search engines, reinforcing the power of the internet in driving financial behaviour, while 11 per cent and 8 per cent of investors respectively chose web forums and AI for financial guidance.
Of those exploring online or new media sources for financial information, more than 20 per cent of both Gen Z and millennials, or those aged under 45, trusted finfluencers, AI and podcasts over trusted sources as more young people choose to invest, said Fidelity.
However, due to the growth of sources at investors’ fingertips many exhibit “knee jerk and reactionary behaviour” in response to market fluctuations, leading to “poor financial decisions”, said Fidelity. The platform said a quarter of investors reported buying a product only a few hours after considering a new fund or stock.
“The risk of relying on non-authorised sources is real and could result in poor financial decisions,” said Oxlade.
While AI tools can provide a “good starting point”, Oxlade stressed the importance of sources being verified and the suggestions provided being “sanity checked”.
Separate research from financial planner Schroders Personal Wealth, cited perceptions over cost, self-reliance and the prolonged attitude that financial advice is only for the wealthy as barriers to accessing advice.
“Ultimately, consumers deserve consistent, scalable and trusted guidance,” Oxlade concluded.
