A general consumer antipathy towards professional financial advice and investing in the stock market has been uncovered by a new poll.
Three-quarters of Britons do not plan to seek out financial advice in the current downturn - and seven in ten have no plans to invest in the stock market.
These are the main findings of a wide-ranging new poll of investors from Opinium Research, carried out on behalf of Barclays Financial Planning and released today. In addition, just 13 percent were found to believe that now was a good time to buy shares.
Opinium found that, of those not planning to invest in the next year, half considered markets "too volatile" to risk exposure to, while 34 percent felt that recent falls in stock indices made shares attractively priced, but that risks remain "too high to consider".
The indices have lost much of their value since 2007, due to the influence of the credit crunch and economic downturn. The FTSE 100 dropped by over 30 percent in 2008 and is currently trading at around 40 percent below 2007's highs.
Alison Tattersall, head of customer and proposition at Barclays Financial Planning, said: "Our research shows the majority of people seem to be limiting their investment options because of market uncertainty, but are also shying away from taking any form of financial advice on the options available to them, which is now more important than ever for everyday investors to consider… We can clearly see that there is a lack of confidence in the market, and little faith that stability will return soon."
The findings stand in stark contrast to a poll released earlier this week by wealth managers F&C. That report found that six in ten people felt that shares represented a "good" investment opportunity at the moment.
A total of 2,200 UK adults were questioned by Opinium over the course of its research.
