Drawing on feedback from more than 1,500 participants, the Scottish Widows Investor Confidence Barometer offers a fresh perspective on current trends shaping the investment landscape. This comprehensive study captures the sentiments of financial advisers, advised investors and non-advised investors.

The latest edition highlights growing unease around the financial resilience of investment platforms, evolving perceptions of advice in the wake of Consumer Duty regulations, and a noticeable gap in confidence levels between advisers and investors. Scottish Widows continues to work closely with advisers to tackle these challenges head-on, reinforcing the critical role they play in guiding clients through an increasingly complex investment environment.

Our survey of over 1500 individuals - advisers, advised investors and non-advised investors - provides a differentiated insight into key UK advice industry issues. In this issue, we highlight that advisers are not always walking the talk on intergenerational planning and more can be done to engage with younger generations; the differences in adviser and investor perceptions about advice and its value; and how a gap has opened up between adviser and investor confidence that may be rooted in investor psychology.