Independent UK financial education
Financial Adviser Hub explains how financial advice works, what advisers do, how services are charged and regulated, and what consumers can consider before seeking personalised help.
Our role is to make the financial advice landscape easier to understand. We do not provide personal financial advice, recommend products or rank adviser firms.
Start with understanding, not a sales pitch
People often begin researching financial advice during an important life event: approaching retirement, reviewing several pensions, receiving an inheritance, planning for a business transition or trying to understand whether ongoing advice is worth paying for. The first challenge is usually not choosing a firm. It is working out what kind of help exists, what it may cost and what questions need answering.
Explore financial advice in the UK
Financial Adviser Hub is organised as a reference library. Each section begins with a broad guide and then links to more focused explanations, comparisons and consumer checklists.
Financial advisers
Understand what financial advisers do, how independent and restricted advice differ, what qualifications may apply and what to expect from a first meeting.
Costs and fees
Learn how fixed, hourly and percentage-based charges work, how one-off and ongoing services differ, and how to compare the total cost of advice.
Retirement and pension advice
Explore where advice may fit when considering pension consolidation, retirement income, drawdown, annuities, transfers and early retirement.
Wealth management
Understand financial planning, wealth management, robo-advice, risk assessment, inheritance-related planning and advice for business owners.
Regulation and consumer protection
Learn how to check a firm or adviser, understand advice, guidance and targeted support, and find out how complaints and protection routes work.
Popular guides
What does a financial adviser do?
Understand the adviser’s role, the fact-finding process and the difference between information and a personal recommendation.
How much does a financial adviser cost?
See how common charging structures work and why the adviser fee may be only one part of the total cost.
Independent vs restricted financial advisers
Learn what these descriptions mean and what they do not tell you about service quality or suitability.
How to check an adviser on the FCA Register
Understand how to check firms, individuals, trading names, permissions and appointed representatives.
Advice vs guidance vs targeted support
Compare different forms of financial help and understand when a service is based on personal circumstances.
What financial advice means
Financial advice usually involves a professional considering information about a person’s circumstances and, within an agreed scope, making a recommendation. Depending on the service, an adviser may ask about income, assets, debts, pensions, dependants, objectives, timescales, risk tolerance and capacity for loss.
A recommendation should not be confused with general information. Reading an explanation of pension drawdown, using a calculator or receiving general guidance can help someone understand a subject, but it does not normally amount to a personal recommendation. Targeted support, introduced in the UK in April 2026 for eligible pensions and investment services, sits between broad guidance and holistic personal advice: authorised providers can suggest actions for groups of consumers with similar characteristics, without completing the full assessment used for personal advice.
Consumer Insight
The label used by a firm is only a starting point. A consumer should also understand the scope of the service, whether a personal recommendation is being given, which areas the firm is authorised to advise on, how the service is charged and whether any continuing commitment is involved.
How an advice relationship may develop
Define the need
The consumer and adviser clarify the issue to be addressed, such as retirement planning, investments, protection or a broader financial plan.
Gather information
The adviser collects relevant facts and discusses objectives, priorities, risks and constraints. The depth of this process depends on the service.
Explain and recommend
Where regulated advice is provided, the adviser explains the recommendation, relevant costs, risks, limitations and why it is considered suitable.
Implement and review
The client may choose whether to proceed. Some services end after implementation; others include an ongoing review arrangement with recurring charges.
Understanding costs before agreeing to a service
Adviser charges may be fixed, hourly, percentage-based or a combination. An initial advice fee may be separate from an ongoing charge. Consumers may also encounter platform fees, product charges, investment-management costs, fund charges, transaction costs or exit charges.
For that reason, comparing only the headline adviser percentage can be misleading. A useful comparison looks at the total expected cost, what is included, whether the service is one-off or ongoing and what happens if the client later decides to stop the arrangement.
Our costs and fees section explains these structures without assuming that the cheapest service is automatically the most suitable or that ongoing advice is always necessary.
Checking regulation and professional status
Consumers should check a firm before sharing sensitive information or transferring money. The Financial Conduct Authority provides tools for checking firms, individuals and permissions. A firm may be directly authorised, or it may operate as an appointed representative under the responsibility of an authorised principal firm.
FCA authorisation is important, but it is not a guarantee of investment performance or a substitute for understanding the service. Consumers can also consider whether the individual has relevant qualifications, whether the firm’s permissions match the proposed work and whether the firm explains complaints procedures and costs clearly.
Our regulation and protection section covers authorisation checks, warning signs, complaints, mis-selling and what may happen if a firm closes.
Who this site is for
Financial Adviser Hub is written for UK consumers, professionals and small business owners who want to understand financial advice before making enquiries or decisions. The guides may be useful to people who are:
- considering whether they need a financial adviser;
- comparing one-off and ongoing advice;
- preparing for a first adviser meeting;
- reviewing pension or retirement options;
- trying to understand adviser charges;
- checking whether a firm is authorised; or
- learning how complaints and consumer protections work.
What Financial Adviser Hub does not do
We are not a financial advisory firm, adviser directory, comparison service or lead-generation business. We do not assess personal circumstances, recommend investments, suggest pension options, create portfolios or tell readers which adviser to use.
Our guides explain concepts and decision frameworks. When a question depends on personal circumstances, the content will say so rather than presenting a general answer as if it applies to everyone.
How our content is produced
Our editorial team uses UK-focused primary and authoritative sources, including the Financial Conduct Authority, MoneyHelper, GOV.UK, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. We aim to distinguish confirmed rules from general industry practice and to date information that may change.
Substantive guides include a visible review date and source list. Material corrections are considered when readers raise an issue or when rules, official guidance or market practice change. More detail is available in our Editorial Policy.
Independent information, clearly labelled
The site may carry display advertising as it develops. Advertising does not change our editorial position: advertisements are separate from editorial content, and an advertiser does not receive a recommendation or favourable treatment in an article. We will label commercial relationships where they exist.
Learn more about Financial Adviser Hub, read our Financial Disclaimer or contact the editorial team with a correction or general enquiry.
Important information
Content on Financial Adviser Hub is for information and education only. It is not personal financial advice. Financial decisions depend on individual circumstances, and regulated advice may be appropriate where a personal recommendation is required.
How to use the guides
Readers do not need to follow the site in a fixed order. Someone new to the subject may begin with the financial advisers hub, while a person comparing proposals may start with costs and fees. Each guide links to the next questions that naturally arise, so readers can move from a broad explanation to more detailed topics without searching through unrelated material.
Where a page includes examples, they are illustrations rather than personalised calculations. Where a figure, threshold or rule can change, the page should identify the source and the date checked. This approach helps readers separate enduring concepts from information that needs regular review.
Reviewed by: Financial Adviser Hub Editorial Team
Last reviewed: June 2026