When a client's financial adviser goes into administration

When a client’s financial adviser goes into administration

On 24 August 2026 an FCA-authorised discretionary investment manager, EGR Wealth Limited, entered administration. The FCA published guidance for its clients on 26 August. The case shows what an accountancy firm needs on file when a firm it has introduced clients to stops trading.

7 min read · Altro Partners, by Equity & General

Reacting to

EGR Wealth Limited enters administration — Financial Conduct Authority, 26 August 2026

What the FCA has confirmed

EGR Wealth Limited entered administration on 24 August 2026. Robert Goodhew and Geoff Bouchier of Kroll Advisory Limited were appointed joint administrators; they are officers of the court and must comply with insolvency law. The firm provided discretionary investment management, managed client portfolios, and arranged the transfer and administration of client investments. On 24 July 2026 it had agreed a voluntary requirement restricting the activities it could carry out.

Two points in the FCA's guidance matter here. EGR Wealth remains authorised and supervised by the FCA and must still comply with its rules; administration does not take a firm outside the perimeter. And the firm does not hold client money or custody assets. Those are held by a separate regulated firm under the client asset rules, which exist so that assets survive the failure of the firm dealing with them.

Custody and compensation

A client who hears that their investment manager is in administration asks whether their money is gone. In a structure of this kind the holdings are held elsewhere and protected by rules written for this event. That is a separate question from whether the client has a claim about the advice or the management they received.

Custody protection answers where the assets are. It does not answer whether the client was advised suitably, and it does not answer what happens to a complaint already in progress. On the last point the FCA states that because the firm is insolvent it will likely not have sufficient money to pay compensation in full where compensation is due, and that this applies to clients awaiting a response, clients holding an unreturned offer of compensation, and clients who had already gone to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

What the FSCS pays

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects consumers when authorised firms fail, subject to eligibility criteria on which people and businesses are covered. For investments, where the firm failed after 1 April 2019, the FSCS states that it can pay up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm. Where the claim is about bad advice that caused a loss, the advice must have been given on or after 28 August 1988. The FSCS cannot accept claims for poor investment performance alone. Those figures and conditions are on the FSCS's pages covering investments and were checked on 26 August 2026.

£85,000

per eligible person, per firm, for investments where the firm failed after 1 April 2019

28 August 1988

advice must have been given on or after this date for a claim about bad advice that caused a loss

FSCS pages covering investments, checked on 26 August 2026.

Compensation does not scale with the size of the portfolio. It is a fixed ceiling per eligible person per firm, and it is the reason to ask, at the point of introduction, where assets will be held and by whom.

What a record of introductions does

A practice that keeps a record of introductions can, on the day a firm fails, pull the list, read each client's consent note, and send each client the administrators' contact details and the FCA's guidance page. A practice without one has to search each partner's sent items for the firm's name, cannot tell whether the first call is one of one or one of thirty, and cannot say what was said in meetings that took place years ago. Its professional indemnity insurer is then notified of a set of introductions the practice cannot describe.

In an Altro partnership every introduction is made through the portal, in your firm's name, and your firm sees each one tracked from first call to advice in place. The record exists because the introduction was made through it.

A shrinking market

The lang cat's State of Advice Report 2025 counted fewer than 5,000 IFA firms in the UK. The FCA's Financial Lives 2024 survey found that 8.6% of UK adults had received regulated financial advice in the previous twelve months. In a market that small, the firm a client is introduced to today may be part of a different firm in three years, through sale, merger or failure.

That is a reason to ask about the firm's structure at the point of introduction and to record the answer. The advice gap sets out the proportion of people who receive advice.

Common questions

Does an accountancy firm carry any liability if a financial planner it introduced a client to later fails?

An introduction is not a recommendation of a regulated product. The regulated advice, its suitability and the ongoing responsibility for it sit with the authorised firm, and that does not change because the authorised firm later becomes insolvent. What can be argued about afterwards is what the accountancy firm said at the time. A partner who said “they are authorised, here are their details, the advice is theirs” is in a different position from one who said “they are excellent, you will do well out of this.” The protection is a written agreement setting out the boundary, a file note recording what was said and what the client agreed to, and wording in the meeting that describes the introduction and does not endorse an outcome.

What does the FSCS cover when an advice firm fails?

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects consumers when authorised financial services firms fail, subject to eligibility criteria covering which people and businesses qualify. For investment claims where the firm failed after 1 April 2019, the FSCS states it can pay up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm. Where the claim concerns bad advice that caused a loss, the advice must have been given on or after 28 August 1988. The FSCS cannot accept claims for poor investment performance alone, because investments can fall in value without anyone having done anything wrong. Those figures and conditions are published by the FSCS on its “what we cover” pages for investments, checked on 26 August 2026.

If a firm holds no client money, are the client's investments safe?

It removes one category of risk. Where a discretionary manager does not hold client money or custody assets itself, those assets sit with a separate regulated firm under FCA client asset rules, which are designed to protect them if the firm holding them fails. In the EGR Wealth administration the FCA states that this is the arrangement. That structure does not protect the advice or the management decisions that put the client into those holdings, or any complaint or compensation the client was owed by the insolvent firm. Custody safety and advice liability are two separate questions.

What happens to a complaint that was already in progress?

It becomes a claim against an insolvent company. The FCA's guidance on the EGR Wealth administration states that because the firm is insolvent it will likely not have sufficient money to pay compensation in full where compensation is due. That covers clients still waiting for a response, clients who received a final response letter offering compensation but never returned it, and clients who had already gone to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The first step is to contact the joint administrators about how claims will be handled. Clients already with the Ombudsman will be contacted about next steps and do not need to act; the Ombudsman can be reached on 0800 023 4567.

How should a practice check a financial planning firm before introducing clients to it?

Start with the FCA's Financial Services Register, which shows whether a firm is authorised and what it is permitted to do. Confirm that the permissions match the work being introduced. Read the firm's own disclosures on charges and on how advice is delivered. Ask where client money and custody assets are held, and whether the firm holds them itself. Ask what happens to the client relationship if the firm is sold or merged; the lang cat's State of Advice Report 2025 counted fewer than 5,000 IFA firms. Record the answers.