There’ s some quite interesting terminology being used, and conversations being had, at the moment around what’ s traditionally called the‘ advice gap’. There’ s been slight, gradual growth to the number of people who receive financial advice over the past decade and we’ re now looking at figures of around 4.6m. Any increase is positive, of course, but we need to be realistic about the fact that not even 10 % of the adult population is currently receiving advice.

At the same time, according to the FCA’ s comments on opening a targeted support gateway earlier this week, there are currently 23m consumers " underserved " by the markets for advice and guidance. So, when we talk about the advice gap, we’ re really talking about several different gaps.

Alongside that, there’ s another term that’ s gaining traction: the‘ adviser gap’. The reality is that the size of the advice gap is contingent on having a decent, buoyant number of advisers to deliver that advice. If the number of advisers doesn’ t grow, capacity doesn’ t grow.

For years, we’ ve assumed that two things would eventually help to move the dial. The first was technology. There’ s no doubt that technology has introduced efficiencies and improved the quality of outputs for clients. But, as I mentioned previously, it hasn’ t significantly increased the number of people receiving advice. The reason, in my view, is that whilst technology has created efficiencies, those gains have been offset by continued regulatory change and rising expectations placed upon advisers- most recently through Consumer Duty.

Tom Hegarty, CEO, Simplybiz

4 | The Adviser Online