Pass me my ‘been-in-this-business-a-long-time-and-seen-it-all-before-world-weary-and-cynical’ hat, please, Mrs. H. Every dozen years or so, both start-ups and big companies (usually with new CEOs) decide it’s a good idea to take on or buy loads of advisers, conquer the advice market and make big profits with supposed economies of scale. And every time the costs of controlling and insuring loads of advisers, most intent on doing their own thing, and of keeping the regulator at bay, get them in the end. And round we go again.
“Britain has lost 435 financial advice firms since 2022”
Headline figures, there were over 200,000 financial advisers at the end of the ’90s, there are around 30,000 now and our numbers are continuing to reduce.