14th July 2026
94% of clients say trust matters most. So why don’t advisers study it?
According to Vanguard research, 94% of clients say trust in their adviser is critical to their overall satisfaction.
Just recently I ran a webinar, ‘The part of financial planning no qualification can teach you’, and I asked a simple question:
“In your client relationships, on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is trust?”
Every answer was 10 (or above!).
At first glance, this isn’t particularly surprising.
Most advisers would agree that trust is important. Many would probably say it’s at the heart of everything they do.
Yet there is something curious about it.
Financial advisers routinely invest hundreds of hours developing technical ability. Many spend years obtaining qualifications, attending conferences, and keeping up to date with changes in the profession.
But very few invest anything like the same amount of time developing the human side of their work.
Why is that?
The answer isn’t that advisers don’t care about trust. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t rank it so highly.
The challenge is that technical skills are mandatory. The path is clear. There are qualifications, exams, and recognised standards.
Trust is different. It’s harder to quantify and far less visible.
Many advisers assume trust is something that develops naturally over time. As a result, it is often treated as a personal trait rather than a professional skill.
But what if that’s not true?
What if trust is shaped by factors that can be understood, developed, and refined?
Some of the key ingredients in building and keeping trust include:
*The quality of your own thinking.
*How deeply you listen.
*Your ability to understand what genuinely matters to a client.
*How you respond when clients feel anxious, uncertain, or emotional.
*Consistently doing what you say you will do.
None of these are technical skills.
Yet they often determine whether a client follows your advice, refers people to you, stays with you long term, or leaves.
In other words, they influence whether your expertise has impact.
What happens when trust is high?
Conversations become easier. Clients are more open. Difficult topics can be discussed honestly. Your advice and recommendations are far more likely to be implemented.
When trust is low, even the best recommendations can struggle to gain traction.
Which raises an interesting question.
If trust is arguably the most valuable asset in an advisory relationship, shouldn’t it be studied, understood, and developed as deliberately as tax planning, pensions, or investment management?
The future of financial planning
Perhaps the future of financial planning doesn’t belong to those who know the most. It will belong to those who can create the deepest levels of trust.
Because whilst expertise gets you a seat at the table, trust is what gives your expertise influence.
And influence is what ultimately creates action, results, loyalty, referrals, and revenue.
The question isn’t whether trust matters. We already know the answer to that.
The real question is this:
In a world where trust is often low, are you intentionally able to create deep trust quickly and consistently?
Because the advisers who can will have an advantage that no qualification alone can provide.
PS. There are a couple of spaces left on the upcoming ‘Trusted Adviser Masterclass’.
It’s designed for advisers who want to better understand the human side of client relationships and learn the principles that create trust, loyalty, and deeper client engagement.
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