The votes are in: Read the results of our Corbel Partners adviser survey 2024

Here at Corbel Partners, our advisers’ experience of being part of our network is the number one priority.

If you read our news and views often, you’ll know that allowing our members to maintain their independence is absolutely essential to us.

So, we thought it only right to check in on how IFAs within our network feel about their experience with us so far.

If you’re a member and took part in this survey, thank you for your contribution. You can also leave us a Google review to help potential future members learn more about working with Corbel Partners.

Keep reading to discover what our members say about us, and how we’re planning to improve the service we provide.

97.75% of members would recommend Corbel Partners to other IFAs

Since our last survey, conducted in 2022, the number of advisers has grown by almost one-third. In July 2024, we are approaching the milestone of welcoming our 150th member to the Corbel Partners family.

With this immense amount of growth in a short period of time, we are very proud to reveal that 97.75% of advisers would recommend us to others.

Of course, we wanted to know further details about what works for advisers (and what doesn’t). Here is a more detailed breakdown of how our members responded to the survey.

Our 2024 survey revealed the top 3 training and workshop priorities for members

We believe in providing IFAs with second-to-none training and exam help, so that they can continue to better their practice and serve clients more effectively.

Here are the top three areas that our advisers want to learn more about.

1. Technical training

We’ve recently brought in bespoke technology designed exclusively for Corbel Partners members. It comprises a back office and client-facing portal system that helps IFAs do the essential work of serving their clients and progressing their practice, and is accessible to all members free of charge.

So, it’s understandable that our members wanted to develop their technical training, including gaining further insights into how our new Finpath platform works.

This year, we’ll make sure to focus on the technological developments in our profession, including our internal programme.

2. Protection

Protection is such an important part of any financial plan, and many of our advisers expressed that they wanted more training and CPD surrounding protection in general.

We’re taking this feedback on board and will be putting on several protection workshops and training sessions throughout the year to come.

3. Later-life provisions including pensions and estate planning

With life expectancies increasing, our members’ clients need careful planning around retirement, estate planning, and property matters such as equity release.

With this useful feedback in mind, we’re making training and support in these three areas available to our members over the next 12 months, ensuring their needs are met consistently.

The top 3 exams our IFAs want to take this year

In addition to training workshops on the above topics, our advisers let us know the exams they’re interested in taking this year.

We offer exam training for any member who wishes to gain additional qualifications and add new feathers to their cap.

  1. AF4 Investment Planning
  2. AF1 Personal Tax and Trust Planning
  3. Certificate in Regulated Equity Release (CeRER)

As a result, we’ll make sure to run specific preparation courses for these exams to offer our members every chance of success.

A hybrid training schedule that suits everyone

We know that just offering training isn’t enough – we need to make it easily accessible for busy advisers with businesses to run.

That is why we asked our members whether they wanted a remote or face-to-face training service.

52% of members want face-to-face training, whereas 48% want remote training.

So, we’re continuing our suite of hybrid training that meets everyone’s needs.

Positive feedback from our members

We were overwhelmed by all the lovely comments from our network members when we asked the question: “What is the best thing about working with Corbel Partners?”

Here’s some of the positive feedback we received.

“Excellent people who are very supportive. The support and paraplanning staff are great and of good quality. Having been Directly Authorised in my previous company, I also appreciate the work that goes on in the background, such as due diligence on products and funds.”

“The freedom to deal with clients without constant monitoring, yet a robust compliance structure is in place.”

“Paul Heath is great and it’s a relaxed environment to work in. I feel very comfortable working here (and this is a really big point for me).”

“Paul and David’s knowledge and experience.”

“The end to end proposition is well structured and there is a professional and personal approach.”

“They trust advisers to do the job without too much red tape.”

“Being part of a ‘can do’ team, where help is readily available if need be and within a forward thinking and forward planning organisation.”

“It’s very much a team and not ‘us and them’.  I’ve been with networks in the past and there was definitely no ‘team’ ethos.”

“Since joining Corbel I have enjoyed my job so much more.”

“Corbel is big enough to matter, but small enough to care.”

Kudos for our amazing team members

Some of our advisers gave shoutouts to members of our support team – we could not leave them out!

“All the support team and paraplanning team are exceptional in my view. However, Jane Brown and David Lambert have been amazing, always coming back to me and helping with solutions and helping us as a business. Having had a bad experience in the past, I’m finding Corbel Partners great to work with and couldn’t have built my business without their support. Thank you all.”

“Gemma Johnson has excellent response times to queries and provides timely updates on fund/MPS recommendations.”

“Sam Cartwright is great with ER, and thanks all round to compliance, support and paraplanning for their help with my transition back into investment work.”

“Matt Smith has a quick turnaround and is good to deal with.”

“They’re all doing a great job, especially Klaudia, Alison, Jane and Paul.”

“James Farrington, always prompt with replies and does things quickly when asked.”

“Chris in accounts has helped me a lot with a double VAT issue and we have had many chats and emails.”

“One recently was Emma Dempsey-Long in Paraplanning who was extremely helpful when it was difficult to get some answers from a provider.”

“Becci Thomas was extremely helpful through the recruitment process.”

“Ann is such a good listener.”

Looking to the future

One improvement we have been striving to make in 2024 is to connect more likeminded IFAs with one another. We believe that having a community of advisers who can rely on and support each other is extremely important.

So, we’ve recently held three adviser events – one in Warrington, one in Glasgow, one in Bristol – with no script and no laptop, just a conversation with advisers where we could hear about their concerns and the things they’re excited about.

We expected these events to run for around 90 minutes, but they lasted for more than three hours each, showing just how much advisers valued the time spent together. Several advisers realised just how closely they lived to one another, meaning they could continue those relationships after the events were over.

Based on this, we now want to run three or four of these events a year in various locations around the UK, helping advisers to keep building relationships. No agenda, just likeminded IFAs meeting and connecting.

In addition, we’re going to keep growing our amazing family of advisers and support staff and continue working tirelessly to ensure our members are fully supported.

Get in touch

Are you interested in becoming a Corbel Partners member?

Email hello@corbelpartners.co.uk or call 01925 637891.

Please note

This information was correct on the day of issue 25/07/2024.

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