Financial advice professionals’ confidence remains high in 2025 but is being offset by ‘persistent vulnerabilities’, according to research from NextWealth.

The firm’s latest Financial Advice Business Benchmarks report showed that attitudes among advisers across the five core components of the research (clients, people & capacity, business strategy & growth, markets & regulation, and tech & efficiency) remained relatively stable from last year.

Advisers rated their ability to understand, serve, and deliver to clients the highest (4.3 out of 5), followed by people and capacity confidence (4.2), and confidence in business strategy and growth (4).

While NextWealth noted that technology (3.6) and markets and regulation (3.5) remained weaker compared to the other components, both were linked to factors seen as outside firms’ direct control.

The average confidence level across all five components was 3.9 out of 5.

Confidence in personal career prospects was the strongest individual aspect in 2025, with 60 per cent of advisers fully confident, up from 48 per cent last year.

NextWealth said this was a possible reflection of the early rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) tools reducing administrative load and freeing up more time for client work.

More than half (59 per cent) were fully confident in their firm’s ability to deliver good value for money, 58 per cent were fully confident on fair and competitive ongoing advice fees, and 57 per cent were fully confident in their firm’s ability to understand the needs of clients.

However, the findings showed that advisers were less confident that their firms were set up to innovate and adapt to change (32 per cent fully confident) and in the quality of their firm’s technology, tools, and systems (13 per cent).

Less than half were fully confident in their firm’s ability to attract new clients (34 per cent), generate asset growth for clients (43 per cent), and that the investment strategies available would meet client needs (46 per cent).

“Growth, where it is organic, remains a central theme in 2025,” said NextWealth managing director, Heather Hopkins.

“What’s new is the shift from coping with regulation to tuning the advice engine for the road ahead – improving outcomes for clients, businesses and advisers, and getting on the front foot.

“Behind the benchmarks, financial advice professionals describe a rolling tune-up of the advice engine: standardising journeys, wiring systems together, and improving data fidelity.

“Data quality, however, remains a sticking point for realising the admin efficiencies tech and AI can offer. Poor data quality is to efficiencies what driving with the handbrake on is to fuel economy and it’s not an issue that is going to go away.

“Regulation, policy change and client expectations alter the external conditions. The firms that are thriving are those with an engine they can fine tune in response: clear playbooks, clean MI, and a bias for simpler, reliable components.

“Three years on, Consumer Duty remains the biggest driver of change, and its ongoing requirement to monitor outcomes and evidence compliance looks to be a major factor denting confidence. Ongoing monitoring and evidencing obligations are operationally demanding and many firms continue to struggle with data quality and MI.”

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