WeightWatchers-style investment advice mooted

Female private banking clients in danger of making bad investment decisions might in future take part in a WeightWatchers-style scheme to promote financial responsibility.

A new report from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) suggests that the financial services industry should develop a model ’financial health plan’ run along similar lines to the popular weight-loss scheme, as this would be a good way of improving the nation’s investment habits.

This would mean that key information about financial products would be made much clearer.

Data from the CII shows that 50 per cent of women do not feel ’confident’ about financial decisions, while 31 per cent don’t understand various financial products ’sufficiently’.

Among men, these totals were just 38 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

Carole Nicholls, the report’s author, said: ’The current systems of financial advice is product-driven, the key information being supplied in a booklet or report full of jargon for the individual to select the most suitable product.

’The new model I am suggesting offers the individual a personalised financial plan to work to which should focus on the outcome as well as the investment - making the connection between the product and the result in real-life terms.’ADNFCR-2318-ID-19291302-ADNFCR