Changes to regulations and consumer expectations are transforming the landscape for financial advisers, according to Marc Lepere – Professor in Practice of Sustainability, King’s Business School, King’s College London.
Consumer Duty rules for financial professionals present challenges but also opportunities to financial businesses. King’s Business School’s free course – Consumer Duty in an Age of AI and Sustainability – aims to give advisers the confidence to tackle these challenges and make the most of the opportunities they present.
The introduction of the Consumer Duty regulations by the Financial Conduct Authority has been a hugely significant development for the financial advice sector.
For many, putting consumer outcomes first has always been paramount, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s good business.
But the FCA’s Consumer Duty Regulations, which came into full force more than three years ago (July 2023), have put that imperative on a formal regulatory footing, requiring firms to have processes in place to identify, monitor and confirm they are satisfied that their business is delivering those good consumer outcomes.1
Perhaps the hardest question lying behind this broad imperative is: what is a good outcome for each consumer? There are numerous parameters, such as the individual’s financial resilience and attitude to risk. However, other assessments, most notably a client’s approach to sustainability, are becoming increasingly important.
Engagement with Consumer Duty is mixed
Our experience with advisers starting our course is that a lack of confidence may be a significant issue for some.
It is one thing to assess whether good outcomes have been achieved when the metric is financial returns and risk. But the task becomes even more challenging when clients have additional goals, such as sustainability.
And the world of sustainability certainly offers a wide range of themes that could vary in importance for any given consumer, from mitigating the risks of climate change to threats to biodiversity and growing social inequality.
Investing is, of course, about making a financial return and investing sustainably can sometimes improve those returns.2 Some consumers may also have specific sustainability preferences, which can introduce an additional layer of complexity for advisers to navigate when seeking to deliver good consumer outcomes.
Plenty of financial advisers are embracing these challenges, but many are progressing more slowly and still others may feel paralysed by the apparently complex, or as they may see it, conflicting expectations.
Charting a course through the changing landscape
There is, however, a clear path ahead. We believe Consumer Duty links directly to sustainability, because underlying both are some common principles – informed choice, analysis of investment preferences, and understanding of sustainability investment regulation and labels.
Our free course is designed to bring advisers up to speed on all these issues and to outline an approach that can combine them in a single advisory service.
It progresses from defining the foundational ideas of ESG and the risks and opportunities involved, to understanding the links between Consumer Duty and sustainability. It aims to provide advisers with practical steps to assess their own firm’s success and their individual achievements in delivering good outcomes to clients.
The course also addresses the role of AI in this new world. AI will clearly provide advisers and consumers with new tools to achieve good outcomes in every sense. But the complexity of demands means that advisers still have a vitally important role because of what sets them apart from any AI system – they are human.
People are at the root of the FCA’s Consumer Duty as important factors explicitly highlighted by the regulator indicate: good faith, honesty, fairness, consumer support and relationships.
These are, and always have been, the key qualities of the best financial advisers. We believe developments such as Consumer Duty, sustainability and even AI, mean these qualities will matter more now than they have ever done. Advisers just need the knowledge and the confidence to grasp the opportunity.
Consumer Duty in an Age of AI and Sustainability is a free 14-hour online course offered by King’s Business School. The next course begins on November 5 with applications deadline October 16.
To find out more visit: Consumer Duty in the Age of AI & Sustainability | King’s College London.
References:
1. Financial Conduct Authority, PS22/9: A New Consumer Duty, July 2022.
This article was originally published by Aviva Investors on 8th September 2026.
Main image: AI, green, zach-m-hVEx0yZSQWY-unsplash
