The scale of the problem
The Lang Cat's State of Advice Report 2025 marks ten years of tracking one of the most persistent failures in UK personal finance. This year's results are, in some ways, the starkest yet — not because the headline figure has changed, but precisely because it hasn't.
That means 91% of adults in this country are navigating their financial lives without professional guidance. Not because they don't need it — the same research shows the overwhelming majority of people who get advice find it valuable.
The problem is not value. The problem is access.
The barriers are well documented. Around a third of adults say advice feels too expensive. Nearly a quarter don't trust advisers — rising to 27% among the over-45s, the very demographic that most needs help. A further quarter don't know where to find an adviser. And 69% of people feel broadly confident managing their own finances — until you ask them specifically about pensions, investments and retirement income, where that confidence collapses.
But there is a deeper problem than any of these. The advice market itself is structurally contracting — and it is doing so in a way that is directly relevant to every accountant reading this.
A market moving away from your clients
The Lang Cat's research identifies four types of advice gap — the affordable gap, the free gap, the awareness and referral gap, and the preventative gap. To these four, a fifth has emerged: the "accidental advice gap", created by Consumer Duty forcing IFA firms to offboard clients who no longer meet their commercial thresholds.
The full picture is more troubling than the accidental gap alone. The IFA market is contracting at both ends simultaneously — fewer firms, fewer advisers, and a narrowing focus on an increasingly specific and wealthy client profile.
This structural contraction matters because of where the remaining capacity is being directed. The profession is consolidating around a very specific demographic: wealthy individuals in or approaching retirement.
Which means a 47-year-old business owner — solvent, profitable, with most of their wealth tied up in the business rather than investable assets — does not fit the target market of most IFA firms. They are not being served by the traditional advice model. They are not being offboarded from it either. They were simply never in it.
The IFA market serves 59-year-olds with £400k portfolios. Most of your clients are neither of those things — and the gap is widening.
The accidental advice gap compounds this. Half of all IFA respondents in the Lang Cat's research have stopped serving some clients because of Consumer Duty — up from last year, and continuing to rise. The average age of these offboarded clients is 54. For smaller IFA firms, those departed clients represent up to 17% of their entire client book. More than a third were simply written to and told the firm could no longer help them.
Where do those clients go? The research offers a sobering answer: most of them go nowhere. They are not picked up by another adviser. They do not find their way to a digital platform. They simply re-join the 91%. Unless their accountant steps in.
Why accountants hold the key
Consider what makes the advice gap so persistent. It is not, fundamentally, a shortage of need. It is not even, in most cases, a shortage of willingness to pay — only 29% of people say they would never pay for advice, which means the overwhelming majority are, in principle, reachable.
The barriers are trust, access and awareness. People don't know what financial advice involves. They don't trust advisers they haven't met. They don't know where to start. And the Lang Cat's own research shows that the single most effective route through all three barriers is a personal recommendation from someone the client already trusts.
That is exactly the position accountants occupy. Consider what you already have that no IFA walking in cold ever could:
- Trust built over years, not established in a fact-find. The 27% trust barrier that stops the over-45s seeking advice does not apply when the introduction comes from their accountant.
- Context no IFA can replicate. You know their income, their business, their pressures, their plans. An adviser starting from scratch would spend months building what you already have.
- The referral relationship the research identifies as the primary route to advice adoption. For women especially, a trusted personal recommendation is not just helpful — it is decisive. You are that recommendation.
- Face-to-face access. Despite the growth of digital services, face-to-face remains the overwhelming preference for financial advice across all age groups. You are already in that meeting.
- Visibility of the cash problem. 61% of people with more than £10,000 in investable assets hold them entirely in cash. You can see this directly in your clients' finances. The question is whether you have a way to act on it.
The advice gap persists not because there is no demand, but because the trusted, face-to-face introduction never happens. Accountants can make it happen.
The five conversations you're not having
The advice gap doesn't open all at once. It opens one unasked question at a time. Here are the five most common — and most consequential — conversations falling through the cracks in accountant-client relationships right now.
- 1. The retirement conversation. Most business owner clients have a vague intention to "exit one day." Very few have a plan that connects the value of the business, their personal savings, their pension and their actual income needs in retirement. People's confidence drops sharply when it comes to choosing a pension or deciding how to take retirement income. Your clients may feel confident in general — but on this, they almost certainly are not.
- 2. The protection conversation. What happens to your client's family if they die tomorrow? What happens to the business? For most SME owners the honest answer is "we haven't really thought about it." Key person insurance, relevant life cover, shareholder protection — the whole landscape sits largely untouched, despite the accountant being the one professional who can see exactly why it matters and exactly what the financial exposure would be.
- 3. The mortgage conversation. A mortgage is, for most households, the largest single monthly commitment they carry. When rates shift — as they have, dramatically — the cash impact on take-home income can dwarf any tax saving you've worked hard to achieve. Accountants understand cash flow and remuneration planning. The connection to mortgage planning is natural, and yet it almost never forms part of any structured client conversation.
- 4. The cash and investment conversation. 61% of people with more than £10,000 in investable assets hold them entirely in cash. You can see this directly in your clients' balance sheets. The gap between what their money is doing and what it could be doing is often significant — and it is a conversation that requires a trusted introduction, not a cold sales call.
- 5. The "what are you actually building this for?" conversation. Underneath every business decision is a personal goal. More time. A number in the bank. A legacy. Security. Until that goal is clearly understood, financial planning is tactics without strategy. The firms that make this question the foundation of every client relationship are building something that goes well beyond compliance — in the space where the advice gap is most acute.
Why the gap has persisted
The advice gap isn't new. The Lang Cat has been tracking it for a decade. The most common explanations — cost, trust, awareness — are real, but they are symptoms of a deeper structural problem.
The traditional model of financial advice is built around the IFA as the entry point. The client must self-identify as someone who "needs financial advice," find a firm that will take them on, and initiate a cold relationship. This is a high-friction process that requires a level of motivation most people never reach, even when the need is obvious.
The accountant-client relationship works nothing like this. It is warm, continuous, and built on years of shared context. The conversation doesn't start from scratch. The trust is already there. And yet, until now, there has been no straightforward way to bring regulated financial planning into that relationship without disrupting it.
The IFA model asks clients to find advice. The Altro model brings advice to the client — through a relationship where the trust is already built.
That is the bridge Altro provides. The accountants who act now will be building something increasingly difficult to replicate — because the relationships that make it work take years to earn, and the firms that have already earned them are sitting on an untapped asset.
What is Altro?
Altro is a structured financial planning partnership for accountants, developed by Equity & General Financial Services — an independent financial planning firm established in 1997, FCA-authorised, with over £400 million in assets under management and more than 10,000 clients nationwide.
The Altro model is designed specifically around the accountant-client relationship. It is not a typical introducer arrangement — it is a collaborative, value-led partnership that keeps you at the centre of your client relationships while giving those clients access to expert, independent financial planning. Here is how it works in practice:
- Step 1 — Formalise the agreement. A simple FCA-compliant Introducer Agreement. No FCA authorisation required on your part, no PI insurance cost, no setup fee. Equity & General manage all regulatory responsibilities.
- Step 2 — Identify opportunities. Client data is reviewed collaboratively to identify those most likely to benefit. You remain in control of which clients are approached and how.
- Step 3 — Launch strategy. A communications plan co-developed with your firm. All client messaging originates from you — maintaining GDPR compliance and keeping the client's trust anchored in your relationship.
- Step 4 — Engage and advise. Equity & General's qualified, independent advisers provide complimentary client reviews, followed by fully researched, tailored advice delivered in a personalised report. Proper, regulated financial planning — not a product pitch.
- Step 5 — Track, report and earn. Clear reporting and regular income in line with the agreed structure, keeping you fully informed and involved throughout.
The model can be adopted in the way that best fits your firm — as a straightforward Introducer, or at a deeper level as an Introduced Appointed Representative (IAR) or Appointed Representative (AR) for practices that want greater involvement over time.
In practice: a story from Buzz Accounting
Andy Jackson is the founder of Buzz Accounting Ltd, an advisory-led practice built around one simple ambition: helping business owners achieve three freedoms — financial freedom, time freedom and mind freedom. Buzz is already an Altro partner. This is how the model has worked in practice, in Andy's words.
"I could always see the gap. I just needed a way to fill it."
Alison had been a Buzz client for just over a year when I introduced her to Altro. She ran a profitable hair and beauty business, drawing a sensible salary and decent dividends. By any standard compliance measure, she was well looked after — books clean, tax efficient, cash flow forecasted to year end.
But I knew things a standard compliance measure doesn't capture. I knew her fixed-rate mortgage was expiring in four months. I knew she had a pension she'd set up in her early thirties and hadn't reviewed since. I knew her business was growing but that she was working every hour of it. And when I'd once asked what the business was for, she'd laughed and said she'd have to think about that.
I also knew, when I looked at her personal balance sheet, that the numbers were good but not joined up. Meaningful savings sitting in cash earning almost nothing. A business worth something — but no idea what, or what she'd need from it to fund the life she wanted. She was, in every real sense, financially exposed — not because she'd done anything wrong, but because nobody had ever brought all of it together.
Before Altro, I had no good answer to that. I could flag the issue. I couldn't solve it. After Altro, I made an introduction to Equity & General — not as a referral, but as a conversation that started from everything I already knew about Alison. The E&G adviser picked up from that context. No cold fact-find. No starting from scratch. Within three months, Alison had:
- A properly funded pension, with a target retirement income mapped back to what she'd told me she actually wanted from life after the business
- Her mortgage refinanced six weeks before her fixed rate expired, with a plan that factored in the drawings she took from the business
- A protection policy in place so her family wouldn't be financially exposed if something happened to her
- A clear personal balance sheet — for the first time — showing her exactly where she stood and what the business needed to deliver
What changed for Alison was exactly what Buzz is built around. Financial freedom — she now has a clear number: what her business needs to build, and what she needs in place by the time she wants to step back. The business stopped being a treadmill and started being a vehicle. Time freedom — with protection in place and the mortgage sorted, she stopped carrying financial anxiety into her working day. She'd been quietly stressed about the mortgage for over a year without mentioning it; once dealt with, she said it felt like putting down something heavy she'd stopped noticing she was holding. Mind freedom — she knows where she stands. She has a plan. She has a team — accountant and financial planner — working from the same picture.
For me, the lesson was straightforward. I already knew what Alison needed. I just hadn't had a way to deliver it. Altro gave me that way — without adding to my workload, without taking the relationship out of my hands, and without sending Alison to a stranger who didn't know her story.
— Andy Jackson, Founder, Buzz Accounting Ltd · buzzaccounting.co.uk
Illustrative case study based on a composite of client experiences. Client name changed.
The financial case
Most accountants think of advisory services in terms of fee income. The Altro model goes further — it creates two distinct streams of financial value for your firm.
The second number matters as much as the first. Recurring income from managed assets builds a measurable, saleable asset within your practice. It changes the nature of your firm — from a business that generates fees to one that generates and holds value.
For firms thinking about succession planning, this is particularly significant. Firms with a structured financial planning partnership embedded within them are a different proposition — to a buyer, to the next generation of partners, and to the clients whose long-term financial planning creates ongoing engagement rather than annual transactions.
Common concerns — answered directly
We're not FCA authorised — can we still do this?
Yes. Equity & General are fully FCA-authorised and manage all regulatory responsibilities on your behalf. Your role is as an introducer. No FCA authorisation, additional PI insurance or compliance infrastructure is required from your firm.
Won't we lose control of our client relationships?
The model is specifically designed to prevent this. All client communications originate from your firm. Equity & General's advisers operate alongside you, not instead of you. Trusted personal recommendation is the primary driver of advice adoption — your introduction is not a courtesy; it is the mechanism that makes the whole thing work.
Is this just a referral arrangement?
No. A referral arrangement sends clients elsewhere and hopes for the best. Altro is a collaborative model — you are involved in identifying opportunities, co-developing the client communications strategy, and receiving ongoing reporting. The client experience is designed to feel like an extension of your firm's service, not a handover to an outsider.
What about Consumer Duty implications for us?
Consumer Duty has raised the bar for all client-facing professionals. The Altro model is built with compliance at its centre — all advice is delivered by FCA-regulated advisers, all client communications are compliant and approved, and the Introducer Agreement provides a clear documented framework for your firm's role. A structured, regulated process for financial planning conversations is a stronger compliance position than ad-hoc informal guidance.
We don't have time to add another service line.
You don't need to. Equity & General provide the advisers, the systems, the compliance infrastructure and the operational support. Your role is to make the introduction and stay connected to your client relationship. The time commitment is minimal. The value generated is not.
Human first. Technology enabled.
The Lang Cat's report points to technology — hybrid models, digital platforms, subscription-based guidance — as part of the solution to the advice gap. These innovations matter. But they largely address how to deliver advice more efficiently once the client is already engaged.
The harder problem is getting the client to the point of engagement in the first place. And that problem is not solved by technology. Face-to-face advice remains the overwhelming preference across all age groups, and trusted personal recommendation is the primary route through which people access advice — particularly for women and the over-45 cohort.
Technology removes friction. It does not build trust. That part is still yours — and you have already done it.
The moment that matters — the moment a client decides to take their financial future seriously — happens because their accountant raised it. Because someone who already knew them, trusted them and understood their situation said: there's more we could be doing here. That is a human moment. It will always be a human moment.
Why now
Four forces are converging simultaneously, and their combined effect creates a window that will not stay open indefinitely.
- The advice gap is structural and not self-correcting. A decade of Lang Cat data confirms it. At 9%, the figure has been essentially static for two years. Consumer Duty is accelerating the offboarding of smaller clients. The gap is not closing — it is deepening.
- The IFA market is contracting. Fewer than 5,000 firms remain — the lowest since 2016. Single-adviser practices are falling fastest. The capacity to serve new clients is diminishing while demand is rising.
- The remaining IFA capacity is moving upmarket. With average new client portfolios above £400k and average client ages approaching 60, the mainstream IFA market is consolidating around a profile that excludes most business owner clients.
- Accountants are uniquely positioned to fill the gap. The trust, the context, the face-to-face relationship — already in place. What has been missing is the structure to act on them. That structure now exists.
The firms that move early will build something that becomes increasingly difficult to replicate. Client relationships with a genuine financial planning dimension are stickier, more valuable and more resilient than compliance-only relationships. The recurring income compounds. The capital value grows. And the clients — who are finally getting the joined-up guidance they needed — refer.
The decision
Ninety-one per cent of UK adults have no paid financial advice relationship. Most of your clients are in that 91%. They are not getting that advice from anyone else. The IFA who might have served them is increasingly focused on a different client entirely — in many cases operating with a minimum portfolio threshold your clients don't meet.
The advice gap will not close on its own. A decade of data confirms this. It will close because forward-thinking professionals — the ones who already have the trust, the context and the client relationships — decide to use what they have.
Altro gives you the structure to do exactly that. No regulatory burden. No operational disruption. No client drift. Just a better service for your clients, a stronger firm for you, and a genuine contribution to closing one of the most persistent gaps in UK financial services.
The clients are already yours. The trust is already built. The gap is real and growing. Altro gives you the means to act on it.
Altro is a partnership programme developed by Equity & General Financial Services Ltd — FCA authorised (No. 474163), established 1997, with over £400 million in assets under management and 10,000+ clients nationwide. Statistics are drawn from The Lang Cat's State of Advice Report 2025, a YouGov-based study of 2,045 UK adults conducted April 2025, combined with adviser research from 210 respondents; figures describe the market at the time of that research and should be verified before external use. Income and capital-value figures are illustrative potential based on current market benchmarks, not a promise of specific commercial terms. This page encourages professional discussion and is not personal financial, investment, mortgage, insurance, tax or legal advice.