Financial Planners are moving upmarket and focusing on better off and HNW clients, according to our recently published 2026 annual survey of Financial Planning Today readers.
More readers now provide wealth management than Financial Panning, the first time that has been the case.
The analysis suggests a clear trend for firms to favour richer clients, with more than four in five (83%) readers saying they now provide wealth management, slightly more than offer Financial Planning (82%).
Before the Coronavirus pandemic, less than half of Financial Planning Today readers said they offered wealth management services.
The shift towards wealth management began apace in 2023 when 53% of Financial Planning Today readers said they offered it, accelerating to 79% in 2025.
The number of readers who said they offer Financial Planning fell from 85% last year to 82% in 2026. However that is still up on the 80% recorded in 2024. More than four out of five offer Financial Planning.
Another business area that continues to see strong growth over the past four years is retirement planning and pensions. In 2026, 82% of readers offered group and individual pensions advice. That is the third year where the majority have offered it as an advice service, with major growth seen since 2023 when just 48% of advisers offered the services.
There also continues to be growing demand for estate planning services, with more advisers seeing this as a key business area ahead of the addition of unused pensions into estates for inheritance tax purposes next April. This year 76% of advisers offered estate planning, the same number as last year and a rise from more than two thirds (69%) in 2024.
SIPPs and SSAS have remained a popular product area, following a temporary dip in 2022/23 following the British Steel pension transfer scandal. In 2026, 58% of readers offered SIPPs and SSAS advice, slightly down from the 64% recorded last year. However, it is still lower than the number of advisers offering the product area in 2020, when 71% offered SIPPs and SSAS advice.
The number of advisers offering pension transfer advice also continues to hold steady. There were 57% offering pension transfer services in 2026, in comparison to 64% last year, considerably higher than the record low of 34% in 2023.
Equity release advice remains relatively unpopular with just 14% of readers offering it, a drop of 30% compared to the 20% which offered it last year.
The growing shift towards wealth management is mirrored by the number of readers offering investment management advice. Almost three quarters (72%) offered investment management services in 2026, holding steady over the past couple of years but a considerable rise from the 38% who covered the product area in 2023.
Protection saw strong growth in 2025 when three quarters (73%) of firms were offering protection advice. While it still remains popular, with 67% of readers doing business in the area, it has returned closer to its historical level (2024: 66%).
Corporate Financial Planning appears to be declining in popularity among readers. This year just 22% offered it as a product area, in comparison to 25% last year and 32% in 2023.
The survey is published in the latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine which is out now.
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