The latest FCA report on the advice market has revealed a 13.9% year on year increase in retail investment intermediation revenue in 2025 to £6.5bn despite a decline in the number of investment advisers last year.
The number of adviser firms has declined sharply in recent years, with the number down by 630 since 2020 to 4,872 in 2025, with consolidation and mergers a likely factor.
The FCA’s Retail Mediation Activities Return report, published this week, suggests a long term trend of rising revenue in the retail investment sector but a steady decline in the number of advisers and advice firms.
Total regulated investment intermediation revenue rose from £5.3bn 2023 to £6.5bn in 2025, according to the report. Over the same period the number of advisers fell from 37,729 in 2023 to 37,517 in 2025, a drop of 212.
While the number of adviser firms has fallen, the number of clients served has risen considerably. In 2020 advice firms served 3.577m clients. In 2023 this had risen to 4.034m and in 2025 it rose again to 4.158m. Advice firms are serving nearly 600,000 more clients than they were two years ago, the FCA data showed.
Advice firms are now onboarding more than 500,000 new clients a year and this is more than the number of clients who leave (see Table 23 below).
While the data provides a detailed insight into the adviser sector, the FCA has pointed out that in 2025 it changed the methodology it uses to prepare the data and classify firms and has added that, “as a result, some firms may have changed category, so data before and after 2025 is not comparable.”
While the methodology and classifications may have changed the broad trends and figures provide a valuable insight into the shape and direction of the sector.
Key findings from the report:
• Reported revenue from retail investment intermediation increased by 13.9% to £6.5bn in 2025, compared to 2024
• Of the firms providing retail investment advice in 2025, 88.1% provided exclusively independent advice, while 10.6% provided exclusively restricted advice
• The percentage of firms that provided both restricted and independent advice was 1.3% in 2025, compared to 1.4% in 2024
• Revenue from non-investment insurance distribution in 2025 increased by 6.4% to £27.7 billion, compared to 2024
• The reported number of mortgage adviser posts fell to 32,990 in 2025 compared to 34,342 in 2024.
Selected key tables from the FCA Retail Mediation Activities Report 2025:
Source: FCA RMAR 2025
Source: FCA RMAR 2025
Source: FCA RMAR 2025
Source: FCA RMAR 2025
Source: FCA RMAR 2025
• FCA Retail Mediation Activities Return 2025
Financial Planning Today Analysis: The FCA's Retail Mediation Report for 2025 reveals a sector doing very well financially but with some concerning underlying issues that need to be tackled. On the positive side revenue is up significantly for the retail investment advice sector and the number of clients is growing strongly too. All of this will drive profitability. On the less positive side, the number of advisers is declining and has been for several years, albeit gently. More worrying is that the number of independent advice firms has fallen by over 600 since 2020. Of course, many will say that as long as profitability remains high and revenue is growing all is well. That's one interpretation and certainly the demand for Financial Planning seems to be growing strongly but the decline in the number of advisers for a supposedly rapidly growing profession is not a good look.
As Financial Planning Today's own surveys have shown, the Financial Planning and advice sectors generally have increasingly moved towards becoming wealth managers and are focusing increasingly on mass affluent and HNW clients. That makes a lot of sense but it does mean that an awful lot of potential clients are being left find. The PFS Pathways to the Profession campaign, encouraging new talent to enter the profession, is one important step in recruitment but a lot more needs to be done to attract new financial advisers to ensure the current growth is sustained. AI cannot be the only solution.
ends.