Advisers 'underestimate' number of financially vulnerable clients

'Be the safe pair of hands they need'

Julia Bahr
clock • 3 min read

Financial advisers are largely underestimating the number of clients that could qualify as vulnerable under the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) guidelines, recent research from Technical Connection, part of St. James's Place (SJP), has shown.

The survey, conducted by Ad Lucem of 100 financial advisers, found that on average advisers estimate 18% of clients would qualify as vulnerable. However, research from the FCA showed that the number of UK adults considered to be financially vulnerable is 28 million, a figure that was less than 4 million before the pandemic started, whilst advisers estimated 11.7 million, creating a vulnerability gap. Financial advisers play an important part in restoring the nation's financial health by supporting those vulnerable clients in the best way possible, the regulator said. According to T...

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