The FCA has just published its 2025 financial advice firms survey data – Jo Campbell, Chief Operating Officer at Verve delves into some of the details and what it means for us.
As a reminder, the regulator went out to over 4,000 firms (around 31,000 advisers) to ask them a variety of questions on their businesses, processes and people.
The results have been published and are, to put it mildly, quite a document. Dense, data-heavy and not exactly a page-turner in its original form. Therefore, I obviously LOVED it!
So I’ve done the reading so you don’t have to. Here are the bits that actually matter to paraplanners, administrators and all-important support staff.
First, the big picture
The advice market is stable. Firm numbers have dropped by around 15% since 2021, from 6,535 to 5,548, but adviser numbers have held steady at approximately 31,000.
So there are fewer firms, but the same number of advisers. Make of that what you will. Consolidation is the story here, with large firms hoovering up smaller ones at pace.
Around a third of the largest firms are actively looking to acquire another firm or client bank in the next two years.
What does that mean for us? If you are working in a smaller firm, this is worth being aware of. It doesn’t mean your job is at risk, but understanding the landscape and timescales in which your firm is operating is never a bad thing.
And if your firm is acquired (or in the process of consolidation) knowing how that process typically plays out can help you ask the right questions.
It’s worth noting that we have generally seen a slow-down of the consolidation market of late and that any movement can always mean opportunity.
The paraplanning picture
Here is where it gets interesting. The survey breaks down staffing numbers across small, medium and large firms, and the paraplanning data is useful context for where we sit in the market.
Across all surveyed firms, there are approximately 5,665 paraplanners employed directly. Alongside us, there are around 19,415 people in other support roles and 26,873 financial advisers.
So for every adviser, there is roughly one paraplanner between five. That is a lot of work being done by relatively few of us, which will surprise everybody about as much as finding out that the latest BBC star has been ‘inappropriate’.
The split by firm size is also telling. Only 31% of small firms employ paraplanners directly, compared to 77% of medium-sized firms and 89% of large firms.
A significant 36% of small firms do not use paraplanners at all, whether in-house or outsourced, which stacks with what we see at Verve and through the Verve Foundation.
One-person-bands tend to do everything themselves. Help from Paraplanners and Admin is a luxury that isn’t always immediately affordable.
If you are a freelance or outsourced paraplanner, there is opportunity for you there.
Women
This is a section of interest to me (for potentially – but not guaranteed – obvious reasons). Only 18% of financial advisers are women.
More than half of multi-adviser firms have no female advisers at all. Not ideal, and the FCA is clearly noting it as something the sector needs to address. Rightly so.
However, women make up 48% of paraplanners and 66% of support roles. We are, in other words, the backbone of a profession that has not yet worked out how to bring us through into adviser roles at anywhere near the same rate, if we wanted to.
Traditionally back office roles tended to suit women with families better with the more traditional 9-5 hours and stable income, but post-Covid, a lot of businesses have changed and there is much more flexibility and diversity.
I’m hoping this is a trend we see improving year on year.
The FCA is pointing to paraplanning and support as the ‘strong foundation of skills and experience’ the sector needs to draw on.
Duhhhh said every support team member, everywhere. Nice to be recognised by the regulator on this, and hoping this helps build up even more well-earned respect in the industry.
AI. Again.
I know, I know, I’m sorry but we’re back here. The survey asked firms about their AI plans and the results are pretty much what you might expect.
Large firms are all over it, with 95% either already using AI in the advice process or considering it. For small firms, that figure drops to 48%, again likely due to cost and time constraints.
The three areas firms are exploring AI most are: supporting client engagement, compliance and risk monitoring, and operational efficiency, which includes meeting notes, data extraction and report writing.
I have written before about AI being a frenemy, and this data supports that view. The firms moving fastest are the ones with the big bucks to invest.
For smaller firms, and for us as individuals, the message is the same as it has always been: understand what it can do, stay curious, and do not let it make decisions that require a human brain.
The golden oldies
Retirement is the primary objective for 69% of advised clients. Pension consolidation, retirement income planning, sustainability of withdrawals.
This is where the bulk of advice work sits, and it means the work landing on paraplanning desks is increasingly complex and that’s before the big changes in 2027.
The FCA reviewed retirement income advice in 2024 and firms are now making changes. Three quarters are reviewing how they calculate sustainability of income, and two thirds are looking at their control frameworks.
That translates, in practice, to more thorough fact finding, more detailed reports and more scrutiny of the work we produce.
Which, in a world of increasing AI slop, means we can add immense value.
And finally, the advice gap
Only around 9% of UK adults currently take financial advice. The FCA estimates around seven million adults hold over £10,000 in cash savings and are potentially missing out on the benefits of investing.
That is a significant unmet need, and the regulator is actively trying to find ways to close it through simplified advice and targeted support.
What that means for the profession is potential growth. More clients, more cases, more work. Whether the capacity exists to absorb that is a separate question, but it is not a bad problem to have.
To summarise, the market is evolving, consolidating and under pressure to modernise and be more diverse. We are right in the middle of all of it and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Data source: FCA Understanding the advice market: financial advice firms survey 2025 (published April 2026)
Main image: checklist, kelly-sikkema–1_RZL8BGBM-unsplash
