Average financial adviser fees in the UK: 2026 benchmarks for firms
What UK advice firms charge in 2026, from ongoing percentages to minimum fees, what the FCA expects you to show for them, and what your fee level means for winning new clients.
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We don't give advice or set anyone's fees. We sell pension appointments to advice firms, and one rule sits under all of our pricing maths: you can't judge what any client source is worth until you know what a client is worth to you, and that starts with your fees.
If you're a client checking whether your adviser's charges are normal, the table in the next section answers that. The rest of this post is written for firms. When we checked the UK search results for this topic on 27 September 2026, all ten of the top results were written for consumers. If you're a principal checking your fee schedule against the market, or a newer adviser working out what to charge, these are the numbers you'll want, with the sources, and a calculator at the end.
What are the average financial adviser fees in the UK in 2026?
The table pulls together the most recent published benchmarks. They come from different surveys with different samples, so treat each line on its own terms rather than adding them together.
| Fee | Benchmark | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing advice fee | 0.83% a year (0.77% in 2025) | NextWealth Fee Benchmarking Report, 12 Mar 2026 (545 advisers) |
| All-in annual cost to client | 1.80% (advice, platform and funds) | NextWealth, Apr 2026 |
| Initial fee (percentage) | About 2%; a fifth of firms charged 3% | NextWealth, Oct 2023. The FCA's 2019 data gave 2.4% |
| Minimum initial fee | £1,949 average (reported) | NextWealth FABB 2026, as reported by Professional Paraplanner, 10 Sep 2026 |
| Minimum ongoing fee | £1,935 a year average (reported) | As above |
| Hourly rate | £100–£350; £205 average reported for 2026 | MoneyHelper; Which? citing VouchedFor |
| Revenue per client | About £2,000 a year; small firms' median £1,534 | FCA advice firms survey 2025, published 23 Apr 2026 |
Two things stand out. The ongoing fee has gone up, from 77 to 83 basis points in a year, despite Consumer Duty's focus on price and value since July 2023. And the FCA's own survey, with over 4,000 firms responding, lands on roughly £2,000 of revenue from a typical client with about £250,000 of assets, which is what 0.8% of £250k comes to. The different sources point to the same place.
Is 0.83% a normal ongoing advice fee?
Yes, it's the middle of the market. NextWealth's 2026 figure is based on 545 advisers surveyed across late 2025 and early 2026. MoneyHelper tells consumers to expect ongoing advice at 0.5% to 1% a year, so 0.83% sits in the upper half of the range the public has been told about.
A few reference points you'll get asked about:
- St James's Place moved its ongoing advice charge to 0.8% a year from 26 August 2025, separated out from product and fund charges. Clients comparing firms now have a published number from the largest restricted firm to hold yours against.
- 1% is still common on smaller books and is inside the MoneyHelper range, but it's above the 2026 average. If you charge it, your value evidence needs to be stronger than average too.
- The all-in figure matters to clients more than yours. NextWealth puts the average total at 1.80% a year once platform and fund costs are added. If your advice fee is modest but the total is high, that's the number the client sees on their annual costs and charges statement.
Fees are heading up. NextWealth's fee report found 20% of advisers plan to raise initial fees in the next 12 months. The encouraging bit for anyone nervous about pricing: of clients who say they fully understand their fees, 97% rate value for money as good or excellent. That's an association, not proof that explaining fees well lets you charge more, but it's a cheap thing to get right.
How much should an IFA charge for initial advice?
The honest answer is "whatever the work costs you plus a margin you can defend", but the benchmarks help. Initial fees have historically averaged about 2% to 2.4% of the amount advised on. The 2.4% figure that Which? still quotes comes from the FCA's 2019 firm data, published in its December 2020 review of the RDR, so it's dated. NextWealth's 2023 research put the average at about 2%, with a fifth of firms charging 3% and 21% charging a fixed fee that averaged £1,800.
What's changed since then is that a straight percentage looks increasingly awkward on large pots. Advising on £1m doesn't take five times the work of advising on £200k. That's one argument for tiering. The best-known published example is SJP's schedule from August 2025, which in most cases is 3% on the first £250,000, 2% on the next £250,000 and 1% above £500,000, with advice, product and fund charges shown separately.
The table shows what those two approaches produce on the pot sizes an appointment in our band would bring, with 0.83% ongoing on top. It's arithmetic, not a recommendation, and it assumes no growth.
| Pot | Initial at 2% flat | Initial, 3/2/1% tiers | Ongoing at 0.83% a year | Year one (2% + 0.83%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £250k pension | £5,000 | £7,500 | £2,075 | £7,075 |
| £500k pension | £10,000 | £12,500 | £4,150 | £14,150 |
| £1m pension | £20,000 | £17,500 | £8,300 | £28,300 |
Illustrative only. Tier bands follow the published SJP schedule as an example of tiering; they're not a benchmark for independent firms. No investment growth, no VAT, before any cost to serve.
For the specific kinds of work pension clients ask for, Unbiased's February 2026 customer survey gives some fixed-fee reference points: £6,700 for at-retirement advice on a £500k pension and £8,995 for inheritance tax planning on a £1m estate. Those are what clients reported paying, not what firms published, so treat them as a rough guide.
What minimum fees are advice firms setting?
This is the number that's moved most. NextWealth's 2026 Financial Advice Business Benchmarks, as reported by Professional Paraplanner on 10 September 2026, put the average minimum initial fee at £1,949 and the average minimum ongoing fee at £1,935 a year. We've labelled those as reported because we've worked from the trade coverage rather than the full report.
Minimum fees are more common than minimum pot sizes. In NextWealth's 2025 benchmarks, 53% of firms had a minimum fee against 36% with a minimum assets threshold. Firms have been raising asset minimums too: Dynamic Planner's 2026 research gave an average minimum of £168,000, with 78% of firms having raised theirs in the past year.
The maths connecting the two is worth doing for your own firm. At 0.83%, the average percentage only reaches the reported average minimum ongoing fee of £1,935 on a pot of about £233,000. Below that, a firm with both is effectively charging a higher percentage than its headline rate. Whether that client is profitable is a separate question that depends on your own cost to serve. That's one reason our appointments start at £250k of self-declared defined contribution pensions, reconfirmed on the call: it sits just above the point where the average minimum and the average percentage meet.
NextWealth also found firms reshaping their books around those numbers. 44% have switched off ongoing fees for some clients who no longer fit, 20% raised fees for those clients instead, and 40% reviewed their cost to serve in the past year. The same benchmarks report a new client takes around 32 hours of staff time to onboard and an existing one about 62 hours a year (Money Marketing's coverage). If you know your hourly cost, those hours turn a fee schedule into a margin. It's the practical side of the 80/20 rule: a minority of clients tends to produce most of the revenue while every client takes time to serve, and how many clients a financial adviser needs shows how to test that on your own book.
Percentage, fixed, hourly or tiered: which charging model works?
Most firms mix them. What follows is how each one behaves from the firm's side.
| Model | Typical level | Works well when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of assets | About 2% initial (2023); 0.83% ongoing (2026) | Work scales with the money, clients want one simple number | Large pots paying far more for similar work; harder to evidence value |
| Tiered percentage | e.g. 3% / 2% / 1% by band | You serve a spread of pot sizes, including £1m+ | More complex to explain and to show on illustrations |
| Fixed fee | Around £1,800 average (2023); £1,949 minimum (2026, reported) | Defined pieces of work, retirement plans, IHT reviews | Scoping creep; needs a clear engagement letter |
| Hourly | £100–£350; £205 average reported | One-off questions, second opinions, DIY clients | Clients rationing time; hard to scale |
| Retainer / subscription | Firm-specific | Planning-led firms with defined annual service | Delivery records; clients who stop engaging |
If you're weighing a switch, the biggest practical difference is predictability of income. A percentage ongoing fee moves with markets and with the client's withdrawals, which matters more on a book of retirees in drawdown. A fixed annual fee is steadier but has to be re-priced as your costs rise.
What does the FCA expect from your fees under Consumer Duty?
The FCA doesn't set adviser fees. It does expect you to show that what the client pays bears a reasonable relationship to what they get, which is the price and value outcome in the Consumer Duty rules (PS22/9). Three pieces of FCA work are the ones compliance will point to:
- The ongoing advice review. The FCA asked 22 of the largest advice firms for seven years of data on whether they delivered the reviews clients paid for. Its findings, published 24 February 2025: reviews were delivered in about 83% of cases, clients declined or didn't respond in 15%, and in fewer than 2% the firm made no attempt. The FCA noted the sample wasn't representative of all advice firms and didn't see a systemic problem, but asked every firm to check its own delivery, look back to 2018 where relevant and consider remedies.
- The 2024 portfolio letter to advisers. Ongoing services must match the agreement, provide fair value and have clear charges and cancellation terms. Firms shouldn't charge for services they don't deliver and must keep records showing delivery.
- CP26/10 (25 March 2026). The FCA consulted on replacing the annual suitability review with periodic reviews based on clients' needs and on clarifying how firms support disengaged clients. Consultation closed on 22 May 2026. These are proposals, so check the final rules before changing your service agreements.
The practical upshot for pricing: a fee schedule now needs a fair value assessment behind it, broken down by client segment, with evidence of what each segment receives. The FCA updated its price and value good and poor practice page on 10 July 2026. Its examples don't create new rules, but they're the checklist your compliance consultant will use.
There's a knock-on for how you win clients, too. If an introducer's fees get passed on to the client, or push you towards products the client doesn't need, that's a value question. A flat fee per meeting, paid by the firm and unrelated to what the client buys, is simpler to document. We cover the due diligence side in how our appointments fit Consumer Duty.
What is a new client worth at your fee level?
Put the benchmarks together and a new pension client could be worth something like this to a firm charging average fees. That's if the whole pot ends up under your advice and the client stays on an ongoing service, which a pot size alone doesn't tell you (illustrative, no growth, before costs):
- On £250,000: about £5,000 initial at 2% plus £2,075 a year ongoing. Around £25,750 over ten years.
- On £500,000: about £10,000 initial plus £4,150 a year. Around £51,500 over ten years.
- On £1,000,000: £20,000 initial at a flat 2% (or £17,500 on the tiered schedule above) plus £8,300 a year.
Those are gross fees before costs. Take off the 32 hours to onboard, the 62 hours a year to serve, platform and compliance costs, and the clients who leave. But even with a heavy haircut, the order of magnitude tells you how much you can sensibly spend to win one.
Calculator: what can your fees afford per new client?
Move the sliders to match your own fee schedule. The calculator works out gross fee income from one client and sets it against the cost of winning that client through pre-booked appointments at £500 per qualified show.
Illustrative only; your results depend on your fees, speed and proposition. Flat pot, no growth or withdrawals, fees counted gross before VAT (where it applies), platform, staff time or tax. Price per show is £500 (no VAT added). The default 25% show-to-client rate is a planning assumption, not an InvestmentsBooked conversion figure. This is a business planning tool for firms, not advice to anyone about fees.
How does your fee level change which appointments are worth buying?
This is the part that matters most for buying appointments, because it's where firms lose money on leads. The price of an appointment means nothing on its own. A £500 show is expensive for a firm that charges a £500 flat fee for a one-off pension check. For a firm charging 2% and 0.83%, and whose advice leaves most of a £250k+ pot under ongoing service, the same show is a much smaller share of what a client brings in.
Three scenarios using the default assumption of one client from every four shows (£2,000 per client):
- Percentage-based firm, average fees. If you charge 2% on the full £250k, the initial fee alone (£5,000) covers £2,000 with room to spare. Even at 10% conversion (£5,000 a client) the first year's fees cover it.
- Fixed-fee planning firm. If your initial plan is £3,000 with a £2,400 annual fee, £2,000 per client is still paid back inside the first year. At 10% conversion (£5,000 a client) it only just pays back inside the first year, so retention carries more of the weight.
- Low minimums, transactional work. If much of your work is one-off at £1,000 to £1,500, pre-booked £250k+ appointments probably aren't for you. Cheaper enquiries you can qualify yourself, or referrals, will fit better.
The other direction matters as well. If your minimum is £500k, a £250k–£500k appointment is a wasted hour however cheap it was. That's why the pot band is a filter you set, and why firms with higher minimums should look at the £1m+ appointment band instead.
A conservative way to start: work out the most you'd pay to win a client, halve it, and hold any new channel to that number until you have a few months of your own conversion data. It stops one bad month from putting you off a channel that works, and one good month from talking you into overspending.
If you want the full cost comparison across channels, what IFA leads cost in the UK sets enquiry, lead and appointment prices side by side. And if you're sizing how many new clients you need, how many clients a financial adviser needs runs the capacity maths.
We book first meetings with UK savers who self-declare £250k–£3m in defined contribution pensions (reconfirmed on the call), into one firm's diary. You pay £500 per qualified show (no VAT added), and no-shows are credited back. Consumers are told advice is paid for, and that your firm pays us for the introduction, before they book. See pricing and the full show test, how it works, or the appointment types we book.
Figures checked 27 September 2026. Sources: NextWealth Fee Benchmarking Report 2026, 12 March 2026 (nextwealth.co.uk) and all-in cost follow-up (nextwealth.co.uk/under-pressure); NextWealth Financial Advice Business Benchmarks 2026 as reported by Professional Paraplanner, 10 September 2026 (professionalparaplanner.co.uk) and Money Marketing (moneymarketing.co.uk); NextWealth initial and fixed fee data, October 2023 (research file); FCA evaluation of the RDR and FAMR, December 2020 (fca.org.uk); FCA financial advice firms survey 2025, 23 April 2026 (fca.org.uk); FCA ongoing advice services review, 24 February 2025 (fca.org.uk); FCA portfolio letter to advisers, 2024 (fca.org.uk); FCA CP26/10, 25 March 2026 (fca.org.uk); FCA price and value good and poor practice, updated 10 July 2026 (fca.org.uk); St James's Place charging structure, 15 July 2025 (sjp.co.uk); MoneyHelper guide to adviser fees; Which?, updated 25 September 2026 (which.co.uk); Unbiased cost of advice, updated 13 August 2026 (unbiased.co.uk); Dynamic Planner Advice 2026 via research file. Surveys use different samples and definitions; figures marked "reported" come from trade coverage of the report. Worked examples are illustrative. InvestmentsBooked is not authorised by the FCA and does not give financial advice.