The amount UK wealthy investors are willing to fork out for a financial advisor is at odds with the average advice rate of 2014, according to recent research.

The average wealthy investor in the UK is prepared to pay no more than £110 ($169) an hour for financial advice, according to a survey by Legg Mason, 27 per cent below last year's going rate.

A recent survey by unbiased.co.uk found that the average advisor charged £150 per hour in 2014, indicating that investors are being charged above their preferred maximum. 

“This implies the industry has far more work to do to highlight the value of advice in an environment in which upfront fees have replaced the old commission model,” said Legg Mason's head of UK sales, Adam Gent.

Elsewhere in the survey, Legg Mason found that high net worth investors in the US use financial advisors considerably more than those in the UK, with 55 per cent of wealthy US investors using an advisor compared to just 35 per cent in the UK.

Interestingly, only 27 per cent of UK investors selected financial planning as a top benefit of working with an advisor – the first was deemed opportunities to improve investment returns.
 
Worth noting is that British pension freedoms, which came into force last month, have so far seen a flurry of wealth managers make moves to meet an expected surge in demand for financial planning advice. This included Standard Life's recent appointment of David Tiller as head of advisor propositions and strategy and Lloyds Bank Private Banking's launch of a retirement planning solution.

The Legg Mason Global Investment Survey, conducted between November and December last year, took responses from 4,208 investors across 20 markets globally.