A survey carried out by The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners shows industry members remain broadly upbeat about their business although there was a dip in the final three months of 2013.

A survey carried out by The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners shows industry members remain broadly upbeat about their business although there was a dip in the final three months of 2013.

The 2013 Q4 Business Confidence Survey saw a slight decrease of one and half index points in sentiment to 32.6 from the previous quarter’s survey, the group said in a statement. However, these results were six points higher than those in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The confidence indices are constructed by taking the balance of survey respondents reporting that they expect business to 'improve' or 'significantly improve' relative to those expecting business to ‘decline’ or 'decline significantly'.

The trusts and estate industry worldwide has had to contend with a number of challenges in recent years, such as governments’ moves against certain kinds of offshore financial structure, rising regulation and cost pressures.

STEP chief executive David Harvey said last quarter’s decline is the fallout of strong gains in confidence points made in earlier surveys last year.

“In quarter three of 2012 we had business confidence sitting at +22 index points. Since then we’ve surged upwards to +35 points in mid-2013 and we’ve dropped slightly to +32.6 index points. I think this reasonably minor drop indicates confidence is levelling out following such rapid improvements in 2013 and is not necessarily the start of a large backwards step,” Harvey said.

It is this annual rather than quarterly perspective that Harvey stresses. “Overall, survey participants reported that they expected all areas of their business or practices to improve compared to the 2012 Q4 survey,” he said.

The confidence figures are an important guide for STEP. With the results, it can assess how best to support its members and engage with policy makers.