Marketing for IFAs, wealth managers and protection advisers
Every marketing page you publish is a financial promotion, which makes your website a regulated artefact rather than a brochure. This page covers the sentence most adviser sites get factually wrong, what the Consumer Duty actually asks of your copy, and the one lead platform that publishes a full price list.
FINDING
Of 32 mortgage firms ChatGPT gave a star rating in Whito’s August 2026 test across six UK cities, 28 had a perfect 5.0, and only 5 of the 71 firms named were recommended by all three AI engines.
Source: AI mortgage adviser recommendations, Whito Research.
What we know, and what we have not measured yet
Whito has not yet run an AI visibility study on investment advice firms specifically. The closest we hold is the mortgage adviser study above, from the same regulated population and the same August 2026 method, and this morning’s FCA register check on AI-recommended mortgage advisers.
One number we will not give you is a single adviser count. The FCA publishes 37,517 retail investment adviser posts for 2025 in its retail intermediary data, and separately around 31,000 advisers at more than 4,100 financial advice firms in its April 2026 advice firms survey. Those measure different populations and must never be blended.
The study worth running is whether the firms an AI engine names as financial advisers in a given city are authorised in their own right or appointed representatives of somebody else, because the FCA warns that consumers may be outside FOS and FSCS protection if an AR exceeds its principal’s permissions. That runs next and lands here first. The AI Visibility Index shows the method meanwhile.
Whito need-to-know for advice firms
- Authorised and appointed representative are not the same, and one sentence gets it wrong. An appointed representative carries out activities on behalf of a principal, and the principal agrees what the AR may do and is responsible for that business. A website saying we are authorised and regulated by the FCA when the firm is an AR is a factual misstatement, checkable in seconds on the register. The correct construction names the principal.
- The FCA’s own consumer warning is the sharpest thing in your sector. The FCA tells consumers that if an AR has gone beyond the activities the principal has allowed, you may not be protected by the Financial Ombudsman or the FSCS if something goes wrong, and to ask the principal to confirm what the AR has permission for. A directly authorised firm can say that plainly and let the reader draw the conclusion.
- Every page is a financial promotion. COBS 4.2.1R requires a communication or financial promotion to be fair, clear and not misleading, taking into account the nature of the client. COBS 4.2.5R says a feature must not be described as guaranteed, protected or secure unless the term is accurate and the necessary information is clearly communicated. That governs your homepage, not just your brochures.
- You do not need the section 21 gateway for your own marketing. The approval gateway introduced by PS23/13 bites when an authorised firm approves a promotion for an unauthorised person. Permission is not required to approve promotions from your own appointed representatives, within your corporate group, or for your own promotions. It does bite if you approve an unregulated introducer’s landing page.
- The Consumer Duty made your website testable. The consumer understanding outcome expects information that is clear, timely and accessible without jargon or misleading terms, tailored to customers’ financial literacy, and tested to confirm comprehension of key information. Tested is the word most small firms have never acted on, and it is an opportunity as much as an obligation.
- The FOS free-cases rule everybody quotes is out of date. There is no allowance of three free cases a year. FOS operates a £2,000 annual discount before case fees apply, with a maximum case fee of £680 for a business and £260 where a professional representative brings the complaint. FOS states most businesses do not pay any case fees.
Why good advice firms are invisible online
Every firm’s website says the same four things
Independent, whole of market, personal service, chartered. A prospective client comparing five firms cannot separate them, so they default to whoever a friend mentioned or whoever paid for the enquiry.
A register distinction the client cannot see
Directly authorised firms and appointed representatives look identical online, and the difference matters for FOS and FSCS protection if an AR exceeds its permissions.
Priced against averages that disagree
Unbiased publishes ongoing charges of at least 1%, while Which?, citing the FCA, publishes 0.8% a year. Hourly rates run £100 to £350 on one source and £30 to £250 with a £196 average on another.
What actually works
In this order. Structure before scale.
State your regulatory status precisely
Directly authorised, or an appointed representative of a named principal, with the firm reference number and a link to the register entry. Precision here is both a compliance point and a differentiator.
Publish your fees and your minimum
Initial and ongoing, in pounds and percentages, with one worked example and your minimum portfolio or minimum fee. Only 25% of IFAs now accept clients under £50,000, down from 53% in 2019, so being clear saves everyone a wasted call.
Write for comprehension, and test it
The Consumer Duty expects information tested to confirm comprehension of key information. Reading your key pages aloud to three non-clients is a legitimate, cheap version of that, and it will change your copy.
Name your specialisms, narrowly
At-retirement, defined benefit, business owners, divorce, protection for the self-employed. Whole of market describes your permissions, not your practice, and it is not a search term anyone uses.
Publish the process, not the philosophy
What happens in the first meeting, what you need from the client, how long a recommendation takes, what the report looks like. The client is nervous about the process, not about your investment beliefs.
Keep a compliant review process
Testimonials and reviews are financial promotions too, and must be fair, clear and not misleading. Ask about the service and the clarity, not about returns.
Quick wins this week
Fix the regulatory status sentence
Check your own footer today. If you are an appointed representative, name the principal. It takes ten minutes and it is a factual statement about your business that a reader can verify.
Publish your minimum
A minimum portfolio size or minimum fee, in one line. Free, and it stops the wrong enquiries and reassures the right ones.
Add one worked fee example
A named scenario with a portfolio size, an initial charge in pounds and an ongoing charge in pounds. It is the single most useful page an advice firm can publish.
Common mistakes
Saying authorised and regulated when you are an AR
It is a factual misstatement, it is checkable on the register in seconds, and it sits under a rule requiring communications to be fair, clear and not misleading.
Quoting three free FOS cases a year
That model no longer exists. FOS operates a £2,000 annual discount, with a maximum case fee of £680 and £260 for professional representatives.
Using guaranteed, protected or secure loosely
COBS 4.2.5R prohibits describing a feature that way unless the term is accurate and the necessary information is clearly communicated. It is an easy rule to breach in protection copy.
Financial adviser marketing guides
Authorised firm or appointed representative, what the FCA warns consumers about, and how to state your status precisely.
What COBS 4 and the Consumer Duty requireThe fair, clear and not misleading rule, the section 21 gateway, and the Consumer Duty word that turns a website into a tested artefact.
What advice costs, and what a lead costsTwo sources that disagree on ongoing charges, and the one platform in this sector publishing a full enquiry rate card.
Adviser software, and who publishes a priceThree vendors publishing clean GBP rates, one publishing nothing, and the question that decides your exit cost.
The register that matters
A statutory register, and a distinction on it that most firms blur.
The Financial Services Register is a public record of firms, individuals and other bodies that are, or have been, authorised by the FCA or the PRA. It is free to search, and the FCA also runs a separate Firm Checker for consumers. What matters commercially is a distinction on it that most adviser marketing blurs. Being authorised means a firm must meet certain standards and has the FCA’s permission to provide certain products and services. An appointed representative carries out activities on behalf of another firm, known as its principal, and the principal agrees what the AR can do and is responsible for that business. The FCA’s own consumer warning is unambiguous: if an AR has gone beyond the activities the principal has allowed, you may not be protected by the Financial Ombudsman or the FSCS if something goes wrong. Both appear on the register with different designations, and the FCA tells consumers to ask the principal to confirm what the AR has permission for. So a website saying we are authorised and regulated by the FCA, published by an appointed representative, is a factual misstatement sitting under COBS 4.2.1R, which requires every financial promotion to be fair, clear and not misleading. Fees for context, read at source on 8 September 2026: the FCA minimum fee for 2026/27 is £2,200, with the A.13 variable rate at £2.697 per £1,000 of annual income above £100,000, so a firm on £250,000 of annual income pays £2,200 plus £404.55 before the FOS and FSCS levies. FSCS protection is £120,000 per eligible person per institution for deposits since 1 December 2025, and £85,000 per person per firm for investments, bad pension advice and mortgage advice.
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Looking for an adviser instead?
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Whito is independent and companies cannot pay to appear in our guidance. This page is marketing advice, not regulatory, compliance or financial advice, and Whito is not a compliance consultancy. Check financial promotion and Consumer Duty obligations against the FCA Handbook and with your own compliance support before publishing anything.