Germany has more financial services intermediaries than any other continental European country. However the independent financial adviser market remains small. The financial services intermediary market is being reformed, but will this be a positive or a negative thing for the independent financial advice sector?

• This brief covers the German market but gives crucial background information about the wider European market
• It covers the market share held by financial advisers in the mutual fund and life and pensions markets and forecasts forwards
• It includes analysis of the market for financial advice, including types of advisers, key products and leading associations
• It contains survey information drawn from interviews with more than 20 key financial advice companies in Germany

One of the advantages of the German financial advice market is that unlike in most financial advice markets in Europe financial advisers in Germany target the whole market, rather than simply targeting the wealthy segment. German advisers highlighted 45% of their customer base as being 'mass market'.

The German financial advice market includes some of the largest financial advice firms in Europe. Between them AWD, OVB, DVAG and MLP alone service nearly 7m clients. While there continue to be a large number of small financial advice firms in the German market, increased regulation is driving further consolidation.

The majority of financial advisers in Germany believe that German financial advisers have issues with the way they have been perceived by the public. 60% believed that financial advisers either currently have a bad reputation or have had one in the past.

• Understand the attitudes and opinions of key players in this crucial distribution channel in order to market to it more successfully going forward.
• Size the proportion of the life and pensions and mutual fund products currently being sold by financial advisers.
• Assess the importance of this channel for distribution strategies going forward.