Katie Brinsden, managing director at Truly Independent, examines how the UK’s longstanding problem with financial literacy continues to hold back both financial inclusion and access to advice.
The UK’s poor level of financial literacy has vexed policymakers, charities, academics and other stakeholders for decades. Despite their best endeavours, it is a problem that refuses to go away.
The issue is of enormous significance for the adviser community. Applying an ostensibly selfish lens, we might reasonably infer that our industry very much needs the public to be financially literate.
Why? Because people who have some kind of grasp of money matters are more likely to recognise the value of what we do. Ultimately, financial literacy feeds the appetite for financial expertise.
With that notion in mind, let us briefly reflect on a few recent findings. Both individually and taken as a whole, they paint a worrying picture.
According to a study published last year, only 39% of adult Britons regard themselves as fully financially literate. The same report ranks the UK 24th out of 42 sample countries in terms of financial inclusion.
Granted, this data could easily be skewed. For example, it is possible that Britons underestimate their skills – and that respondents in other nations, by contrast, have an inflated opinion of their own.
Nonetheless, the upshot is that the UK officially lags the likes of Argentina, Ghana, Colombia and Indonesia in the financial literacy stakes. By any standard, this is not an especially good look[1].
A more recent survey suggests almost 40% of adult Britons become anxious when they think about money. More than 20% are so stressed by their finances that they struggle to sleep at night, while 14% have withdrawn from their social circles as a result.
Over a fifth admit making “bad” or “panic-driven” financial decisions. These might include taking on debt in an attempt to address short-term difficulties.
Perhaps most revealingly, more than a quarter are ashamed of their lack of financial knowledge. Feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to start and being too scared even to check their finances are cited as barriers to progress in this respect[2].
We know, then, that financial literacy is at the heart of financial inclusion. We also know it is linked to mental wellbeing and good decision-making. And we know it still represents a far-reaching challenge.
So what exactly is our collective contribution to the cause? Given that financial literacy is very much in our interests, what is the adviser community doing to address this persistently dire situation? In many instances, embarrassingly, the answer is short and less than sweet: not a lot.
I suspect many advisers’ reluctance to weigh in is rooted in a longstanding preference for clients who are at least relatively successful. These clients generally already possess a pretty sound appreciation of their finances – which, as mentioned above, is often why they seek professional advice in the first place.
Of course, commercial realities are tough to overlook in any sphere. Advisers may well struggle to turn their attention elsewhere when they can make a decent living by dealing exclusively with clients whose assets and acumen are pleasingly above average.
Yet there are a couple of considerations that might just encourage a rethink. They may even persuade some advisers to gently lower their sights and at last play a more substantive role in realising the precious objective of financial advice for everybody.
The first is that there are only so many agreeably wealthy and savvy clients to go around. This alone indicates a “business as usual” approach could run out of steam eventually.
The second is that improving the lives of others is – or should be – among our profession’s most important goals. We are here to help and to make a positive, lasting difference.
Cynics might say this is where the regulator rides to the rescue. After all, why change the habits of a lifetime when the Financial Conduct Authority and targeted support could cure all ills?
But there is something profoundly unhealthy about relying on regulatory intervention. Such inertia is at best unambitious and at worst utterly apathetic. There is nothing to stop advisers from taking steps of their own to enhance the provision of advice.
Ultimately, we are most likely to increase financial literacy and financial inclusion alike if we make our services more affordable. This has always been a truth that some advisers have found tricky to accept.
In tandem, we could do far worse than to step up our engagement with potential client groups that have long been marginalised. There is so much more we can do to better understand their needs and how we might go about meeting them.
Not for the first time, I may stand accused of idealism, an overload of optimism or even flat-out naivety. The fact remains, though, that greater financial literacy could accelerate the closing of the advice gap – and any effort towards that end is likely to benefit us all over the long run.
Katie Brinsden is Managing Director of Truly Independent.
[1] See, for example, Principal Asset Management: 2025 Global Financial Inclusion Index, 2025 – https://secure02.principal.com/publicvsupply/GetFile?fm=EE12697&ty=VOP.
[2] See, for example, Money Ready: The Cost of Not Knowing, 2026 – https://moneyready.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Money-Ready-Cost-of-Not-Knowing-Report-Jan-2026.pdf.
