Targeted Support may help firms address the advice gap

Mark Glover, Managing Director and Head of Wealth Management UK & Ireland at Ortec Finance, highlights how the FCA’s forthcoming Targeted Support regime could help firms reach customers who sit between guidance and full advice.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s new Targeted Support regime could offer firms an additional way to help customers make better financial decisions.

Expected to become operational in April 2026, Targeted Support introduces a regulated activity that sits between generic guidance and fully personalised advice. Firms will be able to make suggestions to groups of customers with similar characteristics and financial needs, rather than advising each individual client.

Mark Glover, Managing Director and Head of Wealth Management UK & Ireland at Ortec Finance, believes the regime is a notable development in the industry’s long-running effort to address the advice gap.

“Millions of people could benefit from clearer financial direction,” he said. “The question has always been how firms can provide that support in a way that is both practical for them and meaningful for customers.”

For banks, platforms, pension providers and advice firms, the regime may offer a way to engage customers who currently receive little or no financial guidance.

Delivering this type of support at scale, however, is likely to require more structured analytical frameworks. Suggestions made to groups of customers will still need to be grounded in a consistent assessment of financial outcomes.

“In practice, that means firms will increasingly rely on robust financial planning and modelling frameworks,” Glover said. “The same types of scenario analysis long used by institutional investors are now becoming relevant to retail financial support.”

Applications for Targeted Support permissions opened on 2 March.