State of the Adviser Nation (SOTAN) is the lang cat’s flagship annual adviser research study. This is Wave Five and is a must-read for anyone looking to understand what’s going on in the financial planning profession and also those who want to see how things have changed over time. Added: Service means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s so subjective it can be hard to put your finger on. Why do we so frequently combine a whole load of service-related activities into a single rating or award? Can we make things better?

Unlike most adviser research, SOTAN acknowledges the complexity and variability of the advisory and financial planning landscape. Whether it’s attitudinal, practice-based or in how firms stitch technologies together, the profession doesn’t think one way about anything. SOTAN gets under the skin of of this and tries to show how firms arrive at good client outcomes and good businesses, however they get there.

This year around 600 members of the planning and advice profession gave us their time via a very in-depth research survey. We are careful to ask firms not only what they’re doing, but how they think that might change over the coming months and years, and – crucially – how they’re feeling. This year, we’ve asked respondents about Consumer Duty and the report includes our findings. After many years of working with both the industry and the profession, the lang cat knows better than most where the pinch points are and what questions to ask. We think you’ll find the results of this major study enlightening.

State of the Adviser Nation is aimed at organisations who want to understand the adviser and financial planning market in more detail, but we also supply a complimentary copy to all firms who take part in the research. Purchasers of SOTAN also receive a complimentary data pack with over 80 ready to use charts and graphs for your own board reports and research documents, and a free playback session with one of the report’s authors.