They learnt that people who take financial advice are generally more adjusted, better informed and take far better care of their money.

About 500 people turned up for the conference in Christchurch and heard the much delayed outcome of a survey that found there was a positive impact of financial advisers on their customers.

For example, 50.1% of advised New Zealanders felt reasonably prepared to face retirement compared with 26.4% of unadvised Kiwis.

The information came from a research paper called Better Behaviours, which was presented by the chairperson of Financial Advice NZ, Heather Roy.

Roy told her audience they should feel proud of their profession.

“Thanks to your hard work and quality advice, we can see that advised Kiwis are much more likely to be doing the kind of thing that we expect,” she said.

“These are things such as reviewing their financial products regularly, paying more into their KiwiSaver and being smart with their mortgage decisions.

“As a result, they are feeling more secure than their unadvised peers.”

The results of the survey were especially positive in the mortgage business. For example, 86% of advised New Zealanders reviewed their mortgage annually, compared with 68% of unadvised Kiwis. Just on 76% of advised people reviewed their loan structure when a fixed-term mortgage ended, compared with 59% of unadvised people. And 61% of advised people raised their mortgage payments when their incomes rose, compared with 53% of unadvised people.

Roy then went on to list several areas in which advised New Zealanders did far better than their unadvised brethren.

One concerned people's attitudes to their own future. The survey found 55.3% of advised people felt extremely secure for their future, compared with 38.9% of people who had not sought professional advice.

A total of 66.1% of advised people felt happy with their financial situation, compared with 47.7% for unadvised people.

Another question asked if people had enough money put aside to deal with an emergency. The response was 69.9% for advised people and 52.4% for the unadvised.

There were similar benefits for advised people in several other areas of financial behaviour: insurance, investments, budgeting practice and KiwiSaver.

The research was commissioned by Financial Advice NZ and carried out by the economics analysis company, CoreData Research. It surveyed 2000 people.

It was a follow up to an earlier document called Trust in Advice and was actually completed and handed over to Financial Advice NZ last December.  It was supposed to be made public earlier this year, but the occupation of parliament monopolised news coverage at the time, so a decision was made to hold it for an occasion when it might attract more attention. .

Financial Advice NZ's CEO, Katrina Shanks said the results of the survey showed that advised Kiwis exhibited the best financial behaviours.

“Regardless of income levels, advised Kiwis are more prepared for retirement, feel better about their financial position and are more comfortable making big financial decisions.”