Intermediaries believe existing clients are the best source of new business, according to Aviva’s new quarterly intermediary ‘Hot Issues Tracker’.

85% of advisers expect referrals from existing clients to be the best source of new business, while 47% expect to increase revenues from existing clients. Other sources of new business also rely on personal relationships, including networking (9%) and professional referrals (8%).

Aviva also found that 77% of intermediaries value good customer service over competitive products (68%).

When asked about planned changes to their business, 79% of advisers say they had no plans to diversify or expand their business within the next few months. However, 25% of advisers are doing nothing to prepare for RDR, while 25% who believe they will no longer be trading come January 2013.

Simon Badley, director of intermediary at Aviva, said: “Putting the customer first has long been seen as the key to a profitable business and our research shows that this is still the case. Financial advisers expect the majority of their new business to come through existing customers in the coming months