Many adjectives – usually of a negative aroma – have been used as descriptive precursors to the words financial adviser.

However new research shows that when it comes to adviser self-assessment things are a little more complicated than you might think.

New psych testing by CoreData Research UK of both British advisers and consumers reveals some topics for discussion.

Three in five UK planners would deem themselves as practical, while just over half would say they are family-focussed and just under half would describe themselves as outgoing.

This differs from the general British public, according to a large sample of some 8,000+ individuals.

When supplied with an thorough range of personality traits and descriptive behaviours (20 in all) only 44% of British people would describe themselves as practical (15% less than advisers), only 37% would say they are family-focussed (two thirds of the proportion of advisers who answered likewise), while a mere one in five of Brits believe they are outgoing (less than half the proportion of UK planners).

Less common self assessment traits for advisers were being followers, compulsive shoppers, lazy and hedonistic (although while low, advisers were still twice as hedonistic as your average person on the street).

Some 16% of British consumers would describe themselves as shy/reserved, compared to only 9% of UK advisers.

A typical adviser must be a more complex beast than your average person (either that or they have the potential of being psychotic?)

The reason we say this is the fact that out of the 20 different personality traits/behaviours provided in the two separate studies, advisers tended to pick multiple behaviours and traits compared to your average consumer.

In fact, advisers self-selected between five and six traits on average compared to three to four for consumers.

Another interesting outcome of the adviser study was that when behaviour was segmented by the nine core geographic regions of the UK there were some distinctive variances.

So, while factors like practicality, being family focussed and outgoing were common themes among all planners, it was observed that advisers in Scotland, for example, were more likely to perceive themselves as athletic compared to advisers elsewhere, while advisers in North East England felt they were more charitable.

(An industry contact noted that Scotland also has the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the UK, so this notion of athleticism could depend on the time of day).

A few final examples of these regional behavioural differences are that advisers in South East England are more likely to deem themselves intellectual, while financial planners in South West England have a higher inclination to describe themselves as tech savvy.

The consumer findings are vast and will be outlined in more detail in due course.