Academy

21st September 2026

Britain needs more financial advisers. Here's why it could be one of the best careers you've never considered.

We spend years teaching people how to earn money. Far less time is spent teaching them what to do with it once they have.

This matters, because quietly, a significant challenge is developing across Britain.

An estimated 13.1 million people in the UK had between £50,000 and £5 million in investable assets at the end of 2022. The number was forecast to reach 14.3 million people by the end of 2026 (1).  Yet the FCA's latest research suggests financial advice firms serve only around 4.1 million retail clients (2). 

The two figures measure slightly different populations, so shouldn't simply be subtracted from one another but the message is difficult to miss.

There are millions of people with increasingly complex financial lives who could potentially benefit from professional advice – and nowhere near enough advisers to serve them. This gap could become even more important.

The UK population is getting older. The ONS projects the number of people of pensionable age will increase from 12.4 million in 2024 to 15.3 million by 2049 (3).  At the same time, responsibility for many long-term financial decisions increasingly sits with the individual, rather than the state.

How much should I save? When can I retire? How should I invest? How do I turn a pension into an income that might need to last 30 years? How do I help my children? What happens to my money when I die? These aren't just investment questions, they're life questions with financial consequences.

Information alone doesn't necessarily solve them. We have arguably never had greater access to financial information. What people often lack is the confidence, context and human judgement to turn that information into good decisions. This is where financial advice matters.

There’s growing evidence of its value. Vanguard's long-running Adviser's Alpha research estimates that following its advice framework can add around 3 in net returns, although the benefit varies considerably by individual circumstances (4).  Its more recent UK research found estimated net value across six case studies ranging from 0.60 to 3.55 a year (5).  Perhaps even more strikingly, research undertaken by the International Longevity Centre for Royal London found that people who received professional financial advice were, on average, £47,706 better off around a decade later, after controlling for other factors (6). 

The value isn't purely pounds and percentages. Good advisers stop people making bad decisions at the moments when emotions are at their highest. They bring structure to complexity and help families talk about money. Sometimes their greatest contribution is simply giving someone the confidence to make a decision they've been putting off for years.

It’s also worth dispelling one common myth about the profession.
Many people assume financial advisers need to be mathematical geniuses who spend their days buried in spreadsheets. The reality is very different. Technology now performs much of the heavy lifting when it comes to calculations, cash-flow modelling and investment analysis. While technical knowledge remains important, the qualities that often matter most are the ability to listen, communicate clearly, build trust and understand what matters to a client.

Financial advice is ultimately a people business. The best advisers are not necessarily those who are best at maths, but those who are best at helping people make sense of life's most important financial decisions. In many ways, it’s a profession built on relationships as much as numbers.

Yet we need more of them.

The FCA says there are approximately 31,000 financial advisers in the UK and, while the average adviser age has fallen into the late 40s, the profession remains heavily weighted towards experienced practitioners (7).  Many advisers are expected to retire over the coming decade, just as demand for advice continues to grow. That creates one of the most significant talent opportunities facing the profession today.

For those considering their next career move, it presents a rare combination: strong long-term demand, meaningful work and the opportunity to build a highly rewarding career.
Financial advice is one of those relatively rare careers where commercial success and social purpose can sit comfortably alongside one another. No two clients are the same. You meet fascinating people from every walk of life. There is autonomy, variety and the opportunity to build relationships that can last decades. 

It can also be financially rewarding. Industry remuneration research suggests total earnings for experienced financial advisers can exceed £100,000 a year, although earnings vary substantially according to experience, role and performance (8). 

It is demanding. Becoming qualified takes commitment and building trust takes time. Advising somebody about their life savings carries genuine responsibility but perhaps that’s precisely why it can be so rewarding. Because ultimately, financial advice is not really about pensions, investments or tax wrappers. It’s about helping somebody look at an uncertain future and feel a little more certain about it.

Britain is going to need many more people capable of doing exactly that.

Explore the opportunity now: How to become a financial adviser | Academy & Training | Mattioli Woods

 1. Oxford Economics (The UK wealth market | St. James’s Place)
 2. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (FCA publishes findings from financial adviser market survey | FCA)
 3. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (National population projections - Office for National Statistics)
 4. Vanguard Adviser’s Alpha research (Quantifying Vanguard Adviser’s Alpha® | Vanguard UK Professional)
 5. Vanguard UK Adviser Value research (vanguard.co.uk/content/dam/intl/europe/documents/en/whitepapers/the-value-of-personalised-advice-in-the-uk-en-pro.pdf
 6. International Longevity Centre (ILC) for Royal London (Financial advice provides £47,000 wealth uplift in a decade, new research from Royal London and ILC shows - ILCUK)
 7. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (Understanding the advice market: financial advice firms survey 2025 | FCA)
 8. Industry Remuneration Surveys (Employed advisers’ earnings jump 8.4 to £102k)