A third of Brits think the coronavirus crisis calls for more proactive financial planning

This week we’ve moved away from people’s knitting skills and are looking at attitudes to financial planning and where people are going for guidance.

A survey from German publishing giant Gruner & Jahr, shows how people’s attitudes are different across several European countries when it comes to future financial planning. The question asked was: “Does the situation demand an increasingly proactive approach to financial planning?”

One in three (32%) respondents in the UK thought it did. Just under a quarter (23%) of Belgians and French do too. But only 18% in Germany and 17% in the Netherlands, nearly half the UK’s number, thought so.

In Sweden, consumption of the top-used media is up by one-fifth. TV dominates, especially streaming services like Netflix (giving Swedes ample opportunities to watch murder mysteries about themselves), but a very close second in media usage comes radio and the daily and evening print offerings.  The people of Sweden trust radio, TV and quality daily newspapers as their most reliable source of news.

In the UK, our good friends at Research in Finance, produced a research piece highlighting the changing investment strategies of three very distinct groups: DFMs, investment advisers and private investors.

Among many other things, the research shows that confidence had understandably dropped with a third of private investors thinking the FTSE will drop further, although a quarter believed it would rise. DFMs and IAs are slightly more bullish with 28% of them believing the market will rise. 

Slightly less than two-thirds of the advisers’ client base have asked for no change in their portfolios. Also encouraging is that 87% of DFMs see this as a buying opportunity. 69% of private investors believe this too, with the asset classes they would look at including UK equities and global equities. 

70% of private investors have recently bought investments and taken advantage of fallen prices. The areas which are benefiting are shares, investment trusts and ETFs.

The excellent weekly update we receive from Time Inc tells us that 46% of ABC1 adults like brands which are showing they are helping during this crisis. 25% of the same socio-economic group are consuming more magazine content. This group is also, understandably, concerned about their financial situations and planning for the future. 

Time Inc believe (rightly so) that there is: “An opportune moment for financial services providers to really step up to the plate and provide practical advice and assistance and communicate in a reassuring and jargon-free manner.”

Last week the Mail print titles saw steady increases in circulation, whilst Metro has continued to distribute to support key workers. 1.8 million is the average daily readership of the Daily Mail (circulations are: 808,000 Mon-Fri, 1.52 million Sat). 

The Mail on Sunday has 1.9 million readers, their circulation is 806,000. Metro’s average daily readership is 638,000, their circulation currently is 350,000.

Traffic to all Mail digital channels, MailOnline, Metro.co.uk and ThisisMoney.co.uk remains strong and collectively was up +30% last week versus pre-COVID-19 benchmarks.