Advice Guidance Boundary Review

Objectives of our work

The Advice Guidance Boundary Review is a response to a growing concern that most consumers in the UK are not getting the financial help they need. The review is a joint initiative between His Majesty’s Treasury and the FCA, to examine the regulatory boundary between financial advice and other forms of support.

Targeted support forms a key part of our review. We want to help consumers navigate their financial lives and make effective, timely and informed decisions about their pensions and retail investments. Our proposals for targeted support and simplified advice aim to provide consumers with the additional support needed to make these important decisions.

Targeted support and simplified advice

Our proposals for targeted support will allow firms to offer suggestions to groups of customers with common characteristics. Millions more people could get help navigating their financial lives with support on pensions and investments. For example, a firm could suggest an alternative sustainable withdrawal rate to a consumer drawing down on their pension unsustainably, or it could suggest that a consumer invests their money in an ISA if they are holding excess cash in their account.

Targeted support introduces a new set of conduct standards, which, alongside the Consumer Duty, provide consumer protections.

We want consumers to have access to different types of support to meet a range of needs. These reforms should set the framework for the next 20-30 years, to support consumers now as well as future generations.

Some consumers will want assurance that a product or suggestion is suitable for their specific individual needs and circumstances. This is where simplified advice can help. 

Simplified advice can complement targeted support where a customer has straightforward needs and provide a stepping stone to more complex or holistic advice. Alongside our proposals for targeted support, we have set out plans to reform the framework for simplified advice.

We want to see a thriving and trusted market for full financial advice, simplified advice, targeted support and guidance. This supports our ambition that consumers should have access to the help they need, at a cost they can afford, when they need it.

Pre-application support service 

We are currently developing the authorisations approach we will use when firms apply for permission to conduct the proposed new targeted support new specified activity.

In the meantime, we are extending our Pre-application support service (PASS) to firms planning to apply for a targeted support permission.

This is a voluntary support service for firms before they formally apply for regulatory permissions. It is distinct from applying for permission itself and it helps firms prepare high quality applications and often facilitates faster assessments and decision.

PASS is already available in certain sectors to provide firms with a voluntary support service before they formally apply for regulatory permissions. 

Find more information on how PASS operates in those other sectors. 

Firms that are planning to apply for a targeted support permission can submit a PASS form via Connect to register their interest in being involved. 

Pre-application meetings between us and participating firms are expected to begin in October 2025. The application gateway for targeted support permission is anticipated to open in early 2026.

The form requires applicants to submit a summary of their proposed targeted support business model. 

The rules on providing targeted support have not been finalised and therefore firms are only expected to provide a summary based on their understanding of our proposals set out in our Supporting consumers’ pensions and investment decisions: proposals for targeted support consultation.

By extending PASS to firms planning to apply for a targeted support permission, we are inviting those firms to start discussing and considering their targeted support business model before: 

1. the proposed new specified activity has been finalised through legislation;
2. and our application processes and rules for the targeted support regime have been finalised. 

Firms should be aware the Treasury are consulting on the regulated activity and we are consulting our rules for targeted support – and both are subject to change.