An adviser in conversation with a client

Most UK adults had no regulated financial advice last year

For example, a business owner of fifty-four with two children may have a company that has traded for eleven years and now holds a six-figure cash balance. You prepare the accounts, file the return and discuss dividends with them.

The accounts do not say what the money is for, whether the owner can retire at sixty, or what happens to the family and the company if they die. Answering those questions is regulated advice, and your firm is not authorised to give it.

This is the advice gap, and it applies to clients on your list.

FCA, Financial Lives 2024 — 17,950 UK adults. 8.6% had received regulated advice in the previous twelve months; 13% of self-employed adults had.

Who gets financial advice

The FCA surveyed 17,950 UK adults in 2024.

8.6%
of UK adults had received regulated financial advice about investments, pensions or retirement planning in the previous twelve months.
13%
of self-employed adults had received it.

Sources: FCA, Financial Lives 2024 (17,950 UK adults, published 16 May 2025) and Financial advice and support: selected findings, 2024, for the advice figures. See fca.org.uk.

What it costs a client to have no adviser

The money stays in cash

Savings left in cash lose buying power in every year that inflation runs above the interest rate.

The pension is whatever was set up first

Old workplace pensions sit where they were left, in the default fund, unreviewed since the day they started.

No protection in place

A personal guarantee on the company borrowing, a mortgage and children at home, with no life cover, critical illness cover or income protection behind any of it.

Retirement is a date with no plan behind it

An owner with a retirement age in mind, and no plan that connects the business value, the pensions and the income they will need.

The estate is left to the will

A will drafted years ago, no lasting power of attorney, and pensions coming inside inheritance tax from April 2027 with no plan for the change.

The sale arrives unprepared

When a buyer approaches, the deal runs on the buyer’s timetable. Business asset disposal relief needs its conditions met for the two years before the sale (gov.uk, Business Asset Disposal Relief).

An accountant going through a set of accounts with a client

Why the accountant sees it first

You already have the two things advice needs

You already have the client’s trust and the facts: the drawings, the dividends, the cash balance and the family circumstances.

You see it first

Examples are surplus cash, an owner past 50, a charge registered against the company, or an owner talking about selling up. Each is in the accounts you prepare.

You see it as you prepare the accounts, before the year-end meeting.

Five conversations to have with your business-owner clients

Each one starts from something in the accounts.

1

Retirement

A plan to exit one day, with nothing connecting the business value, the pensions and the income the client will need. The gap has to be known years before the exit, while there is time to close it.

2

Protection

What happens to the family and the business if the owner dies. Key person cover, relevant life cover and shareholder protection can be paid for through the company.

3

The mortgage

The monthly payment, and what happens to it when the fixed rate ends. The extra cost can outweigh the tax saved that year.

4

Cash and investment

A cash balance that has grown each year with no decision on what it is for. You can see it on the balance sheet.

5

What the money is for

It sets the target for the pension, the protection and the exit.

Questions accountants ask

What if a client already has a financial adviser?

Some will. You raise it in the same way and the client decides. If they want a second view, the Equity & General financial planner reviews what is already in place and can recommend no change.

What does my firm have to do?

Describe what you can see in the accounts and ask whether the client would like a conversation with the financial planner. If they do, record the introduction in your portal. If they say no, nothing more happens.

Your firm may describe what it sees. It may not recommend what the client should do. Your team is trained on where that line is and given approved wording for each situation.

Who is responsible if the advice is wrong?

Equity & General. The recommendation, the suitability report and the regulatory responsibility sit with Equity & General, which is directly authorised by the FCA under number 474163. Your firm needs no FCA permissions and no change to its professional indemnity cover.

How much of my firm’s time does it take?

Signing the partner agreement and one call with the partnership director to set up. An hour’s training for whoever runs your year-end meetings. After that, an introduction takes a question in the client meeting and an entry in the portal.

What does the client pay?

The first meeting is with the Equity & General Account Manager and is free. No advice is given on that call. If the client goes ahead, Equity & General sets out its fees in writing before any work starts.

Does the client stay my client?

Yes. Equity & General does not prepare accounts or file returns. Equity & General works alongside your firm, and your portal shows what was recommended and what is in place.

Filling the void

Equity & General’s paper on the advice gap in owner-managed businesses. It covers why owners leave the question of what the business is for unanswered, what that costs them, where the line sits between spotting a need and giving regulated advice, and the steps from noticing something in the accounts to advice being in place. The paper is eighteen pages long, takes about twenty minutes to read and sources every figure.

Get the paper
Reading glasses resting on an open notebook

Financial planning for your clients, alongside the accounts and tax work

Equity & General is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. There is no charge to your firm, and we do everything to set it up for you.

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