The survey was drawn from a poll of 200 wealth management clients.

The surveyed clients are less satisfied than a year ago: 18 per cent revealed their satisfaction with their wealth manager had fallen in the past 12 months. The wealthiest clients are the most likely to be disappointed.

Those with over £3 million in investable assets are 55 per cent more likely to be dissatisfied than clients with less than £3 million. The young are the unhappiest: those under 45 are 48 per cent more likely to be dissatisfied than clients aged over 65.

Interestingly, despite the market conditions, some banks seem to be getting it right with just under 1 in 7 (13 per cent) becoming more satisfied with their wealth management since last autumn. However, only 23 per cent of clients would recommend their private client manager to their peers.

Going forward, it appears age and gender affects whether clients see opportunities in this crisis or just doom and gloom. The majority (58 per cent) of clients are pessimistic about the general investment environment over the next 12 months.  Of the small but substantial group (26 per cent) who see opportunity in the markets, the majority are male and very wealthy. 

Meanwhile, the under 45s are over 40 per cent more likely to be optimistic than those who are in their 50s and 60s, who express concern about funding their retirement.

For James Lawson, Ledbury’s director, the most important information wealth managers can glean from these results is that they must listen to their clients in order to re-establish the trust the financial crisis has destroyed.

“In a time of market turmoil the benchmark research tells us communication is key,” Mr Lawson said.

It’s exactly during these moments of uncertainty, when banking and finance are nearly legitimate conversation pieces, that banks should be using customer research and engagement techniques to encourage their clients to become evangelists,” Mr Lawson said.

He believes concentrating on what the most unsatisfied clients want will ultimately reap rewards.

“Getting satisfaction right will determine which organisations will emerge from the current turmoil as winners, not least because the benchmark has shown that the hardest to satisfy are those who are the wealthiest now, and the next generation of the wealthy,” he added.