The FCA has confirmed this morning the share of its running costs that advisers and other firms must cough up.

The figure has risen from a £68m total in 2014/15.

Advisers also face a slightly higher total to pay for the Pension Wise service, with the FCA saying the amount has risen to £39.1m from £35m.

The category which advisers fall into, A13, will have to pay £4.7m instead of the £4.2m which was previously put forward.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

The FCA has estimated that around 2,920 financial advisers, whose main business is providing advice on retail investment products, will contribute £451,200 (9.6%) of the £4.7m Pension Wise costs allocated to the A13 fee-block.

The FCA said in November that the A13 funding block comprising advisory arrangers, dealers or brokers would pay 12% rather than the originally proposed 30%, following a consultation.

The regulator said it had received some criticism of this move to reduce the burden on advisers from firms in the other fee blocks.

But the FCA has stuck with the 12% portion for advisers, explaining in its publication of fees today: “We reduced the allocation of Pension Wise costs to 12% for A.13 in recognition that financial adviser firms will only benefit if, after using Pension Wise, consumers seek advice from regulated financial advisers.

“However, the firms in the other four PGL fee-blocks will more likely benefit as the monies released through greater pension flexibility, if used for investment, will be distributed among them.”

It stated: “The other four fee-blocks cover cash deposits, insurance and investment products (and related services), investment management services and pension services.

“This lower allocation to A.13, compared to these other four fee-blocks, is intended to make an initial allowance for this difference.

“We again acknowledge that from previous consultations the majority of respondents favour an allocation basis that would reflect what retirement financial products and services consumers are choosing.

“This data would need to reflect that position for each PGL fee-block, not just for A.13 and be comparable across them.

“We continue to believe that such data is not available at this time and is likely to be challenging to obtain in the future. If such data does become available we will consider how efficiently and effectively it could be used to better align the allocation of the PGL to the firms that could benefit most.”