Information on advisor numbers - November 2024

Please provide: 

1. The number of firms and the number of retail investment advisers, as reported to us by regulated firms. These numbers are based on the reports that all firms engaged in financial advice on retail investments must submit to us annually in their Retail Mediation Activities Returns, a summary of which is published on our website (the link to the most recent publication can be seen on this link: Retail intermediary market interactive analysis 2023 | FCA[1]). We will collate this data for you across the years it has been published (since 2013). Furthermore, as the categorisation of firms has changed over time, we will present this data based on the most recent categorisation across all the years since 2013 to enable comparison.

2. For every year since 2013 to date, the numbers of Approved Persons and Senior Managers at firms engaged in financial advice, defined as firms which submit an RMA-G[2] return.

In respect of item 1 we attach an Excel file (Annex A) with the relevant tables from our published data[3] collated in one place. The categorisation of this data by firm type is available from 2017 onwards. We have therefore limited this to 2017 onwards as the aggregated data published prior to this (available via this link[4]) is not obtained through the same method/source and therefore comparison may be misleading.

As explained in our email of 17 October, the data does not include persons performing a function at an Appointed Representative (AR) (i.e. the CF1(AR), CF2(AR), CF3(AR), CF4(AR), CF5(AR), SMF 1 (AR), SMF 3 (AR), SMF 27 (AR)). These persons are responsible for directing the affairs of the Appointed Representative. The Approved Persons and Senior Managers at the Principal firms are responsible for making sure the AR is fit and proper and complies with the FCA’s rules.

The data also does not include persons performing the CF30 function as those persons will largely be counted as retail investment advisers in Q1 above. Please note that the total number of firms each year may not precisely match the published data. This is due to firms resubmitting regulatory returns and/or late submissions.

The information in respect of item 2 is set out in the table below.