A survey from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that 8.6% of adults had received regulated financial advice on investments, pensions or retirement planning in the past year.

That worked out to the equivalent of 4.6 million UK adults, based on the 17,950 participants in the watchdog’s 2024 Financial Lives survey, published last week.

This figure was only slightly higher from the 8.3% — the equivalent of 4.4 million adults — that said they had received regulated financial advice in the FCA’s 2022 survey.

The FCA’s survey also found that 39% of UK adults — the equivalent of 21.2 million — held investments in 2024. Excluding those with an investment property or other real investments (such as wine, art or jewellery) but with no other investment products, this proportion fell to 35%, which was down from 37% in 2022.

In addition, 61% of adults with £10,000 or more in investible assets held all or at least three-quarters of these assets in cash.

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In the regulator’s report detailing the findings from the survey, FCA director for cross‑cutting policy and strategy Charlotte Clark said that the watchdog was “working to reform the regulatory framework for advice and guidance, which will ultimately help consumers have access to the help, guidance and advice that they need, when they need it, at a cost they can afford, to make informed decisions”.

Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: “Sensible reform in this area is desperately needed to boost access to regulated advice and allow providers to offer more useful guidance to customers. This should in turn result in higher levels of engagement, better financial decisions by savers and ultimately good outcomes – the central aim of the FCA’s consumer duty.”

Earlier this week, we asked Yahoo Finance UK readers if they had ever received financial advice to help with investing. We received 509 votes, with 28% of respondents saying they had, while 65% had not and 7% were unsure.

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