More people are seeking a wealth manager for the first time, while women prefer to be served by bigger organisations rather than smaller outfits, a survey by an online matching service finds.

An online matching service designed to help wealth managers and clients meet says it is seeing unprecedented numbers of people seeking wealth managers for the first time, suggesting the uncertain economic climate may be encouraging the trend.

The report also shows that women are keener on having their money managed by smaller, rather than larger, wealth managers.

Some three-quarters (75 per cent) of users on the findaWEALTHMANAGER.com system are first-time seekers for wealth management services, against a historical average of around 66 per cent, a statement from the organisation said. In turn, 57 per cent of its users were first-timers when measured at the end of the second quarter of last year.

Another trend is waning interest in execution-only services, suggesting users want more advice and support. Interest in execution-only services dropped by 50 per cent in the six months to the end of last year, now taking up just 8 per cent of all users on the system, the firm said. Just 9 per cent of male users are now looking for execution-only investment services, against an even smaller 3 per cent of females. Correspondingly, while 77 per cent of all users are looking for discretionary investment management services, this figure rises to 88 per cent among female investors.

The company said it is seeing a rising number of female users: there was a 50 per cent rise in the third quarter of last year. Among other variations between the sexes, in the final quarter of last year over half of female users (55 per cent) said they were looking for wealth planning services compared to under a third (31 per cent) of men. These females are cash-rich, time-poor individuals with demanding professions who seem to have little time or inclination to try their hand at investing without professional guidance, but who clearly have pension planning on their mind.

“Historically, around two-thirds of our users have been new to wealth management. Now, three-quarters of our users are first-timers, while the number looking for execution-only service continues to decline too,” Lee Goggin, co-founder of findaWEALTHMANAGER.com, said.

“It seems safe to say that DIY investing is starting to look less appealing to affluent investors as macroeconomic and geopolitical threats to their portfolios continue to spring up. The sweeping pension reforms soon to come into force also seem to be focusing investors’ minds and we’re particularly pleased to see more and more female users coming to findaWEALTHMANAGER.com to see what proper wealth management could help them achieve,” Goggin said. (He was referring to the greater freedom people have in being able to manager their pension funds.)

The size of an institution seems to be a much more significant issue for women than men. Male users are equally split between those who prefer the intimacy of working with a smaller institution and those who want the wider platform of a larger firm. In contrast, 50 per cent more women than men are looking for a small wealth manager (21 per cent are seeking a small firm versus 15 per cent seeking a large one). This might suggest that boutique wealth management firms that like to emphasise their contrast with bulge-bracket banks seem to be more appealing to women than men.