The percentage of clients considering using their current wealth management for future financial needs has inched up to 68 per cent in 2009 compared with a slightly weaker figure in 2008, according to the Ledbury Research UK Wealth Management Client Satisfaction Benchmark study.

Figures in the wealth management industry have spoken in recent months of the need to improve trust in the sector's services, after client confidence was shaken by the heavy losses of 2008 and events such as the Bernard Madoff Ponzi fraud.

The increase in willingness to use a wealth manager seems unusual, Ledbury said, because client satisfaction levels fell to 44 per cent last year compared with 49 per cent in 2008.

Among other findings from “completely dissatisfied clients”, 57 per cent of clients questioned in the survey said they will not use their existing wealth manager again, 14 per cent were undecided and 29 per cent would stay with their existing providers.

“Dissatisfied clients are surprisingly reticent to change banks”, the Ledbury report noted.

“Older and wealthier clients appear to be more definitive about whether they will use their manager again, while younger clients and those in the lower wealth brackets are less sure of their intentions,” the report continued.

It added: “But another factor might be financial objectives. Younger clients and those with lower wealth levels are more likely to want to grow their fortunes and be opportunistic in achieving this.”