Debt woes ‘fuelling’ demand for financial advice

Tracey Mullins, a spokesperson for the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA), has suggested that while her organisation’s members are not primarily concerned with debt management issues, such concerns are now impacting upon everyone.

And the spiralling credit card debts problems, along with other forms of personal borrowing, has in part prompted a general understanding of the need for financial planning, Ms Mullins continued.

Ms Mullins said: “As a first port of call, people don’t think of our members as debt advisors but debt is a very real issue for everybody.”

“I think it is true that people are getting more used to the whole issue of financial planning. It may be because they have issues with debt,” she added.

As well as dealing with debt problems, the AIFA works with business leaders who it claims are “shaping the financial experience in the 21st century”.