Closing the advice participation gap
Letter from Scottish Widows
Advice can transform lives. Yet many people are not fully participating in the conversations and decisions that shape their financial future.
We set out to explore how women experience advice and the barriers they face. But our research revealed a participation gap that is not gender specific. For advice firms, it represents one of the biggest opportunities for growth today.
Firms that encourage greater participation are building stronger client relationships, retaining wealth across generations and delivering better outcomes for families. In doing so, they’re not only helping more people benefit from advice, they’re building stronger, more resilient businesses.
As wealth transfers and pensions/IHT conversations become more complex, firms need to ensure every voice is heard and involved.”
The timing is particularly important. With pensions set to become subject to inheritance tax from April 2027, more families will be drawn into complex conversations about wealth, legacy and financial planning. In many cases, the people who will make decisions tomorrow, and will be affected by decisions made today, may not be engaged.
This report explores the barriers holding people back from participating and highlights practical ways advisers are responding. The findings challenge long-held assumptions, but they also reveal a clear opportunity: make advice more accessible, engaging and inclusive, and more clients will experience its full value.
The opportunity is clear. The question is: how will your firm grab this opportunity?
Jenny Davidson,Intermediary Wealth Director, Scottish Widows
Letter from NextWealth
We already knew the broader headlines: that women will inherit more wealth, are more likely to change advisers, value relationships and want holistic advice that speaks to what financial security looks like for them and their families.
What this research reveals is something the conversation has not yet explored: a participation gap. This is different from the advice gap. Many of the people we spoke to have substantial assets. Some have circled the idea of taking advice for years. Others already have an adviser but remain passengers in a relationship that has never really become theirs.
Women may experience this more often, and often more acutely. But the participation gap is not just about women. It affects quieter personalities, people who prefer to delegate financial decisions, secondary partners in advised households and anyone who feels they should understand pensions and investments before they can ask for help.
That is why this report is ultimately about the future of advice, not simply advice for women.
What this research reveals is something the conversation has not yet explored: a participation gap. This is different from the advice gap.”
As always in our work, we have tried to surface real examples of advice firms who are tackling this challenge. Firms making participation easier are starting with people’s lives before they mention money, recognising different styles of participating in the advice conversation and creating space for every client’s voice to be heard.
The timing of this conversation is also important.
The inheritance tax changes affecting pensions from April 2027 will bring many more families into complex conversations about wealth and legacy. In many households, the person making decisions tomorrow may not be the person who has led conversations with the adviser today.
We are hugely grateful to Scottish Widows for supporting this research, and to the advisers and consumers who shared their experiences so openly. Their insights challenged some long-held assumptions, including our own.
Heather Hopkins, Founder & CEO, NextWealth
Methodology
NextWealth surveyed 200 UK financial advisers and 251 consumers in May 2026 on behalf of Scottish Widows. The quantitative survey findings were supported by historic data from NextWealth’s Financial Advice Business Benchmarks data base (comprising over 500 adviser responses across 2024 and 2025) and qualitative in-depth interviews with 8 financial advisers and 8 consumers conducted during May and June 2026.
