Appointment setting for financial advisers: in-house, outsourced or pre-booked
What each model costs, who carries the no-show risk, and the PECR rule that stops anyone cold-calling about pensions on your behalf.
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We book pension appointments for independent financial advisers, so getting meetings into an adviser's diary is the part of this we know best. We don't give financial advice, and nothing below is legal advice. It is a plain comparison of the ways an IFA firm can get meetings booked, what each costs, and the one rule on pension calls that decides most of it.
What is appointment setting in financial services?
Appointment setting is the step between interest and a meeting. Someone has shown interest (filled in a form on your site, replied to a directory listing, asked for a call), and a setter contacts them, checks they fit your criteria, and books a time in the adviser's diary. Good setting also covers confirmation and reminders, because a booking that doesn't turn up is worth nothing. The reminder timings that work are in our guide to reducing no-shows.
A setter turns existing interest into meetings, so they need a supply of people to contact, and in pensions that supply can't be a list of strangers. So when you compare the options, you're comparing three different answers to two questions: who generates the interest, and who turns it into a meeting.
- In-house setter: you generate the interest (website, directories, bought enquiries), your employee books it.
- Outsourced setter: you generate the interest, or the agency does under its own marketing, and the agency books it.
- Pre-booked appointments: the supplier generates the interest and books it, and you buy the meeting.
Can you use an appointment setter to call pension prospects?
Only people who've agreed to hear from your firm, and only in the way PECR allows. Regulation 21B of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, in force since 9 January 2019, says a person "must not use, or instigate the use of, a public electronic communications service to make unsolicited calls to an individual for the purpose of direct marketing in relation to occupational pension schemes or personal pension schemes", unless two conditions are both met:
- The caller is an FCA-authorised person, or the trustee or manager of a pension scheme; and
- Either the individual has previously told that caller they consent to such calls, or they have an existing client relationship with the caller, would reasonably expect the calls, and were given a simple, free way to refuse when their details were collected and in every later communication.
Three things follow for appointment setting.
- "Instigate" catches the firm that hires the setter. If an agency cold-calls about pensions on your behalf, you can be liable as well as them.
- An unauthorised setter can't make the calls itself. In its 2021 decision against EB Associates, the ICO said the introducer appointed representatives who placed the calls were not "authorised persons" for regulation 21B, and it held the authorised firm responsible because it instigated them. The penalty was £140,000, for 107,003 calls.
- Consent has to name the caller. A form saying "we may pass your details to partners" isn't consent to calls from your firm.
The stakes went up this year. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 raised the maximum PECR fine to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide turnover, whichever is higher, from 5 February 2026. Authorised firms also have the FCA's own cold-calling rules in COBS 4.8, which include identifying yourself and your purpose at the start of a call and giving a contact point when you arrange an appointment.
Within the two-part test above, and only where the caller is your authorised firm: call people who have told your firm they consent to calls about their pension (for example through your own website form, with wording that names your firm), and call existing clients where the full existing-relationship test is met, including a free way to opt out each time. Service messages (confirmations and reminders) about meetings people have booked are a separate matter. What doesn't pass is a pension marketing call to a bought list, a "data" file, or anyone whose consent doesn't name your firm as the caller. Article 33 (below) doesn't change that.
We don't make unsolicited pension marketing calls, and we don't phone consumers at all. Prospects come from adverts that are approved by an FCA-authorised firm under section 21 of FSMA before they run, and they book online. The prospect asks us to book them with one FCA-authorised independent firm. We share their answers with that one firm only, and we tell them the firm's name and FRN as soon as it claims the booking, before the call.
What does an in-house appointment setter cost?
Salary benchmarks for the role vary with the job title. Indeed puts the average UK telemarketer salary at £25,420 (updated 7 September 2026). Glassdoor puts appointment setters at about £20,000 base plus around £2,000 of additional pay. Commission structures vary. One UK recruitment advert offered £12 an hour plus £50 per appointment attended, which is the right thing to pay a bonus on.
Here's the employment cost of a setter on the Indeed average (illustrative):
| Cost | Per year | How it's worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | £25,420 | Indeed UK telemarketer average |
| Employer National Insurance | £3,063 | 15% above £5,000 (before any Employment Allowance) |
| Workplace pension | £575 | Minimum 3% of qualifying earnings |
| Gross employment cost | £29,058 | Before bonus, phones, CRM, training, management time and holiday cover |
Spread over a month, that's about £2,422. If your setter produces 10 attended first meetings a month, the employment cost alone is about £242 per meeting. At 20 it's about £121, and at 40 about £61. Those are illustrative. Eligible smaller employers can offset up to £10,500 of employer NI a year through the Employment Allowance, which would reduce the NI line if you haven't used it elsewhere. The number of meetings depends entirely on how many enquiries you give them, and that's the bigger cost.
Because the setter needs enquiries to call, add the enquiry cost per meeting. As an illustration, VouchedFor's announced price from 1 October 2026 for an enquiry at the £250k+ wealth setting is £239 + VAT. If half of those became attended meetings, that's £478 of enquiry spend per meeting before VAT, the subscription or the setter. Speed is what a good setter improves: Unbiased says that, from speaking to its biggest and best-performing firms, about 80% of leads contacted the same day go on to book, against 25% after 24 hours (no published method or sample). One adviser-marketing commentator puts advisers working their own leads at about 10–15% lead-to-appointment on a good day, and a specialist call team at 45–50% (his claim, not a measured study).
In-house works best when you already have a steady flow of enquiries and the setter can do other work (client admin, review bookings) in the gaps. It works badly when the enquiries dry up and you're paying someone to wait.
What does outsourced appointment setting cost?
Outsourced setters rarely publish prices, and the ones that do mostly sell to B2B software firms, several of them in US dollars. Treat the table as a rough guide to pricing models, not UK pension rates. The UK pension-specific prices are in the pre-booked table further down.
| Model | Published price | Source and caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | US$16–25 an hour | Only-B2B 2026 guide. US pricing, B2B sales |
| Day rate | £215–£275 a day + VAT | TelePro, a UK B2B telemarketing agency |
| Monthly retainer | US$2,000–10,000+ a month | Only-B2B. US pricing |
| Per booked appointment | US$50–1,000+ | Only-B2B. US pricing, all sectors |
| UK financial-services setters | Not published | TBG Group, To Market and others quote on enquiry |
If you outsource, the question that matters most is where the people being called come from. Ask every agency, in writing:
- Who will you be calling, and how did they give consent to hear from my firm? Ask for the exact consent wording and a sample record.
- Are any calls about pensions made to people who haven't asked my firm to call them? If yes, walk away.
- Who is the caller, legally? Your firm, an authorised firm, or an unauthorised agency?
- Do you record calls, and can I hear them?
- What do your callers say? Get the script. It shouldn't include fact-find questions, attitude to risk or any view on what the prospect should do.
- How are adverts approved? If they run consumer ads, who approves them under section 21?
- What happens with no-shows? Is a booking that doesn't happen charged?
- Is each booking exclusive to my firm?
The FCA's statement on advisers taking business from unauthorised introducers (updated 17 July 2026) expects firms to do robust due diligence, check introductions were sourced legitimately and keep full ownership of the advice process. If the agency is making the calls, your compliance file needs to show how.
What about buying pre-booked appointments?
The third option is to buy the finished meeting: a supplier runs the marketing, qualifies the prospect and books them into your diary. There are several in the UK pension market, and they differ mainly on what you pay for.
| Supplier | You pay for | Published price | Floor and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Pronto | Booked appointment | From £130 | Criteria agreed per campaign. Says 82% attend; no public no-show credit |
| RMT Direct | Booked appointment / campaign | Campaigns from £1,650 a month. Its 2026 trial (first 3 of 9 appointments free) values those 3 at £2,916, implying about £972 each | Price varies by fund size. Says it is not FCA-authorised |
| GAP GNX | Appointment (defined in its terms as agreeing a time to speak) | Not published | £50k+ selectable floor. Failed-criteria appointments may be replaced or credited |
| ADsorbed | Sat (attended) appointment | Not published | £200k+ combined pensions, exclusive, no retainer |
| Intently | Agency model with human and AI setters | Not published | Targets £200k+ clients |
| InvestmentsBooked (us) | Qualified show | £500 per show, no VAT added. Minimum purchase 10 appointments (£5,000), credits valid 6 months | £250k+ in DC pensions (self-declared, reconfirmed on the call). No-shows and prospects below your selected band credited |
We're on that list, so weigh what we say accordingly. The headline prices aren't comparable on their own: a £130 booking where one in five doesn't turn up costs more per meeting than £130, and a pot floor of £50k and one of £250k are different products. Convert everything to cost per attended, qualified meeting at your own minimum. The full comparison of suppliers is in IFA lead generation companies, and the maths of paying per enquiry, per booking and per show is in leads vs appointments.
How do the three models compare?
| In-house setter | Outsourced setter | Pre-booked appointments | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who creates the interest | You | You, or the agency's marketing | The supplier |
| Fixed cost | About £29,058 a year gross employment cost, plus enquiries and overheads | Retainer or day rate, plus enquiries | No salary, but most have minimum purchases or monthly campaigns (ours is 10 appointments, £5,000) |
| Who carries no-show risk | You | You, unless the contract says otherwise | You on pay-per-booking; the supplier on pay-per-show |
| PECR risk | Yours, and controllable | Shared: you can be liable for calls you instigate | Depends on how the supplier sources prospects. Check it |
| Control over the prospect's first impression | Full | Partial (their script, your name) | The supplier's ads and booking flow; you from the first call |
| Scales down when your diary is full | No, the salary continues | Depends on the notice period | Usually yes (pause purchases) |
Does an appointment setter need FCA authorisation?
It depends on what the setter does, so get it checked. The outline:
- Introducing to independent advice. Article 33 of the Regulated Activities Order excludes introductions to an authorised firm made with a view to independent advice from the "arranging" activity. The FCA's guidance (PERG 8.33) gives "finding potential customers for independent financial advisers" as an example and says the introducer can be paid. It doesn't cover introductions to restricted advice.
- Financial promotions. An unauthorised setter that runs ads or sends marketing inviting people to get pension advice needs those promotions approved by an authorised firm with approver permission under section 21 of FSMA, or to fall within an exemption.
- Calls. Separate again. Being an Article 33 introducer or an introducer appointed representative doesn't make someone an "authorised person" for PECR 21B.
- The advice process. A setter should record facts and book the meeting. The FCA lists introducers doing fact-finds or attitude-to-risk assessments among its red flags. Keep all of that inside your firm.
InvestmentsBooked is not authorised by the FCA and does not give financial advice. We introduce prospects only to FCA-authorised firms that give independent advice. We record facts and what the prospect wants help with; suitability stays with the adviser. There's more on how that works on lead quality.
What should an appointment setter say? A compliant call-back script
Here's a call-back script for someone who asked your firm to contact them through your own website. It's built around the COBS 4.8.3R habits (say who you are and why you're calling, and give a contact point), even though a requested call-back isn't a cold call. Get your compliance support to approve your version.
What's missing on purpose: no questions about attitude to risk, no comments on their pension provider, no "you'd probably be better off in drawdown". A setter who gives an opinion creates a compliance problem and makes the adviser's first meeting harder.
Which appointment-setting model suits which firm?
- Sole adviser with diary gaps. An in-house setter is hard to justify on one adviser's diary. Use your own website enquiries for the setting you do yourself, and fill gaps with a pay-per-show supplier, so an empty week doesn't cost you a salary.
- Firm of 2–10 advisers with steady enquiries. A setter who also books annual reviews can pay for themselves, as long as the enquiry supply is steady. Track attended meetings per month from day one.
- Firm without steady enquiries. Setting capacity won't fix a demand problem. Either invest in your own marketing (see lead generation for financial advisers), try a marketplace such as Bark (the maths is in Bark for financial advisers), or buy meetings that come with demand attached.
- Firm considering an outsourced telemarketing campaign about pensions. Read the PECR section again. If the campaign involves calling people who haven't asked your firm to call, don't.
If pre-booked meetings are the route you want to test, here's how our booking works and here's the pricing, including the show test and what's credited. Credits that come back to your balance (a no-show, a cancellation that isn't rebooked, a disqualification or any other credit) come back with a fresh 6-month expiry. We supply appointments that match your filters well within the 6 months. If we ever can't before your credits expire, we refund the unused credits. The four kinds of meeting we book are on appointment types, starting with pension appointments. When you meet them, our first meeting guide covers the first ten minutes, fees and follow-up.
Figures checked 27 September 2026. Sources: PECR regulation 21B (legislation.gov.uk); ICO guidance on live marketing calls; ICO monetary penalty notice, EB Associates (29 November 2021); ICO summary of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; FCA COBS 4.8; FCA PERG 8.33; FCA on accepting business from unauthorised introducers; Indeed telemarketer salaries; Glassdoor appointment setter salaries; UK setter job advert; employer NIC rates 2026 to 2027 (gov.uk) and Employment Allowance (gov.uk); Only-B2B pricing guide; TelePro costs; Lead Pronto; RMT Direct (pension leads, 2026 offer); GAP GNX terms; ADsorbed; Intently; VouchedFor enquiry pricing from 1 October 2026; Unbiased speed-to-lead data; Sam Perry on lead-to-appointment rates (video). The in-house cost table is illustrative: it uses the Indeed average salary, 15% employer NIC above £5,000 and a 3% pension on qualifying earnings of £6,240–£50,270. Supplier prices are as advertised and haven't been checked against invoices.