The who, what, where of advice: intelliflo’s 2025 Advice Map of the UK

The most likely people in the UK to receive financial advice are married men over 50 living in London or the South East of England. That’s the headline finding from our analysis of nearly three million advised client records held within intelliflo office. We know from various studies that the advice gap is a persistent issue in the UK: despite the crucial role advice plays in helping people build their future financial security, too many people struggle to access expert support with their finances. As a result, millions of UK consumers are not saving and investing enough, putting their long-term financial security at risk.

Knowing who receives financial advice, who doesn’t and why is crucial to understanding and addressing the advice gap. To help shed light on the most underserved groups and identify ways to better support them, we have collated the client data held within intelliflo’s solutions to produce the 2025 Advice Map of the UK. Our analysis uncovers not only who is benefitting from financial advice, but also who continues to be left behind. By highlighting the disparities, we aim to better understand how we can help firms extend their client bases to broader target groups, without compromising the quality of the advice delivered. If the sector can successfully widen access to advice, it will not only benefit individual clients but also drive growth for advice firms and boost the financial resilience of the UK as a whole.

Our data reveals several key factors that influence an individual’s likelihood of seeking and obtaining paid-for advice. Age and gender have often been discussed as obstacles to taking advice, but what about the impact of relationship status, geographic location and disposable income? We delved deep into the client records to better understand how each element impacts access to advice.

The gender gap: men are more likely to receive advice than women

It has long been observed that a gender gap exists in the recipients of advice and our data supports this view. Across the UK, 51% of advised clients are men and 43% women (gender is not specified for the remaining 6%). The gap is smallest in London, with the gender split of clients living in the capital 49% women and 51% men. In contrast, Northern Ireland has the largest gap, with the split 56% men versus 44% women.

The reasons for the difference in men and women seeking financial advice is the subject of much debate. The 2024 Advice Gap report by the lang cat suggests that fewer women know where to find a good financial adviser (25% compared to 20% of men) or don’t know where to start (21% vs 15% of men). Similarly, HSBC research highlighted a confidence gap around investing with, 69% of women don’t feel confident about investing, compared to 56% of men.

HSBC also revealed that 34% of women do not have any savings, compared to 28% of men. The gender pay gap is often considered a significant factor contributing to the gender advice gap as, generally, men earn more than women and the disparity becomes more pronounced among higher earners. Although the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the pay gap is closing slowly, it still stands at 7% (down from 7.5% in 2023). This suggests that men are likely to have more money available to save and invest than women. We’ll look at the impact disposable income has on taking advice in more detail a little later.

It may be that women also have different priorities when it comes to their finances. A 2022 survey of US consumers by Ellevest magazine found that women’s top financial priority was supporting their family (which included family planning, childcare, taking care of parents or siblings etc), while men’s was growing their retirement savings.

The age gap: Nearly nine out of ten people receiving advice are 40 and over

The breakdown by age of those receiving advice is revealing: the under 40s account for just 12% of those receiving advice, while two-thirds are aged 50 to 79. Although it makes sense for those nearing retirement to want to put their finances in better order, encouraging more people to take advice earlier would be beneficial to the long-term financial resilience of the whole UK population.

Digging a little deeper into the data, when viewed by age, the gender gap appears to reverse in later life. Women make up 53% of those aged 80 and over who take advice, while men account for 47% – a six percentage point difference. However, longevity is likely to have an impact here: women in the UK live longer than men on average. According to the ONS, 59% of the UK population aged 80 and over are women, while 41% are men. When considering advised clients as a proportion of the total male and female populations in this age group, about 5% of women aged 80 and above receive advice, compared to 6% of their male counterparts.

Looking at different age groups by region, there’s little variation from the national average, with two exceptions. In London, 30 to 49-year-olds are much more likely to receive advice than the national average and 60 to 79-year-olds are less likely. In Northern Ireland on the other hand, the 40 to 59 age group is most likely to seek advice, while those in their seventies are least likely.

The relationship gap: Married couples are far more likely to take advice than singletons

When it comes to relationship status, those who are married make up 66% of the advised population, compared to 17% who are single. When overlayed against ONS data, married and widowed advised clients are significantly over-represented, while single people are taking advice in much lower numbers than their share of the population would dictate.

Being in a relationship appears to have a negative impact on women taking advice. Our data shows an overall gap of eight percentage points in men taking advice compared to women. However, married women taking advice trail married men by 12 percentage points, while for women in an unmarried relationship the difference is 14 percentage points.

The gender pay gap may be a contributing factor here. The ONS records that the median age for women to get married is very early thirties. Although the national statistics don’t look at relationship status in the gender pay gap figures, they do show that the gap widens with age. Between 18 and 21 there’s actually a negative gap of 0.5%, but between 30 and 39 the gap stands at 4.4%, rising to 12.1% age 50 to 59. A key reason for the increase is the impact having children can have on a woman’s career development and earning potential.

Also if, as suggested earlier, women prioritise spending money on their families over investing, this is likely to be more prevalent among those in a relationship.

When looking at the regional data, the differences were minimal, except for, again, London and Northern Ireland. In London, a higher proportion of singletons and a lower proportion of married people take advice compared to their share of the overall population. In contrast, in Northern Ireland, a greater proportion of married couples seek advice than would be expected based on their share of the local population.

The regional gap – Londoners and those in the South East most likely to take advice

We examined the data to see how widely advice is accessed across the UK and discovered significant differences. Looking at the records within intelliflo’s solutions, 16% of clients are based in the South East of England, while just 2% live in Northern Ireland.

However, when we factor in ONS population data, we see that fewer people seek advice in London, the North East of England and Northern Ireland than expected based on their percentage of the population. Conversely, the South West of England, East of England and Scotland have a higher proportion of people receiving advice than their population sizes would suggest.

A reasonable assumption would be that the regional disparities are linked to similar differences in disposable income. However, we didn’t find a clear link between disposable household income and receiving financial advice. For example, London has the highest average disposable household income. At the other end of the scale, the average disposable household income in the South West of England and Scotland is more than £10,000 lower than in London. However, the percentage of adults who receive advice in these regions is much higher than in the capital.

While it is likely that having enough money impacts the decision to take advice to some extent, clearly it’s not entirely straightforward – it’s not just a case of who has the most disposable income.

The wills gap

An interesting final finding from our data is that almost three-quarters (71%) of people taking advice have made a will, compared to just over half (53%) of the general population, according to The National Will Report 2024 . This suggests that firms are successfully encouraging clients to make a will as part of the financial planning process – another benefit of taking financial advice.

Bridging the advice gap(s)

Having mapped several of the factors that contribute to the advice gap, the crucial question is how the sector can address these issues. We believe the solution lies in smart technology – specifically advice firms using the right tools to deliver regulated financial advice to more people who have financial means but currently go unserved.

The right technology can enhance human financial advice in three key ways, paving the way for firms to play a bigger role in improving financial security for more people across the UK.

1. Lowering the cost of client servicing

Over the last year, we’ve heard of more advisers offboarding clients due to concerns over the cost of advice, particularly in light of Consumer Duty. This is borne out by recent NextWealth research, which found that 72% of firms had increased the number of offboarded clients in the previous 12 months.

Digitising and automating the more administrative tasks involved in the advice journey, including fact-finding and reporting, reduces the cost and time required to serve each client. We think Artificial Intelligence has an important role to play too, supporting firms in complying with ongoing advice requirements so they can deliver a high-quality advice service to a wider range of clients cost-effectively.

2. Boosting capacity to serve new clients

Our marketwide research last year found that on average, advisers spend one whole month each year just implementing plans on different platforms. It also revealed that rekeying data between systems and the need to constantly log in and out of different parts of the advice journey – what we call the ‘swivel chair’ effect – leads to errors in 20% of client onboarding processes.

This unnecessary friction limits the number of clients firms can service effectively. Yet by embedding the right technology throughout the advice journey, firms can streamline processes, reduce errors and take on more clients without overloading existing resources or compromising quality. It means businesses can scale faster and more effectively, adding human expertise where it delivers the most value in supporting clients, rather than simply to complete an ever-increasing quantity of manual tasks.

3. Reaching clients in new locations

Thanks to the proliferation of digital tools, client meetings no longer require people to sit in the same office, or even the same country. Advisers can now meet face-to-face with clients virtually using video conferencing functionality, while client portals integrated with the firm’s business management system allow for documents to be shared and signed securely. Financial planning can be provided from anywhere to anywhere, extending the reach of advice firms well beyond the limits of their local area and opening up new possibilities for new business prospecting.

Our Advice Map highlights the persistent inequalities in the delivery of advice across the UK. Yet by integrating technology effectively throughout the advice journey, firms can reduce the cost and resource required to deliver regulated financial advice, making it more accessible to more people. This benefits consumers, advice businesses and the UK as a whole. Hopefully, future insights from our data will reveal that technology is supporting advice firms in reaching further into the underserved groups, with positive outcomes for all involved.