The Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) was launched in August 2015. Read more about the work we have undertaken.
FAMR was jointly led by HM Treasury and the FCA (see terms of reference)[1]. It explored how government, industry and regulators can take individual and joint steps to help develop a market that provides affordable and accessible financial advice and guidance to everyone.
On this page, we bring together all the relevant work we have undertaken on FAMR, starting with the most recent and working back to the initial work in 2015.
2020 Evaluation of the impact of RDR and FAMR - Final Report
Following our Call for Input in May 2019, we published a Final Report in December 2020 that summarises our evaluation of the impact of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR).
Both reviews were significant milestones which sought to improve consumer outcomes from financial advice and guidance. This report evaluates their impact on the market to date, including an assessment of how the market may develop to ensure it meets consumer needs now and in the future.
2019 Evaluation of the RDR and FAMR – Call for Input
In our 2018/2019 Business Plan[3], we committed to review FAMR in 2019, at the same time as evaluating the Retail Distribution Review (RDR). This review considered whether RDR and FAMR met their objectives.
The market has evolved considerably since the RDR and FAMR were introduced, so we also used this review to assess the future of the market. We considered market developments, and whether advice and guidance services met current consumer needs and were likely to do so in the future.
We published a Call for Input[4] in May 2019 to gather feedback from interested parties.
2018 interim consumer research
In 2018, the we commissioned Critical Research and Ignition House to conduct consumer research to inform FAMR. The objective of this survey and qualitative research was to understand the support UK adults were getting with their financial decisions, and how this may have changed since the publication of the FAMR baseline report[6] in 2017. The results of the research were published in August 2018.
2017 FAMR baseline report
One of the FAMR recommendations was that the FCA and HM Treasury should work together to develop an appropriate baseline and indicators to monitor the development of the financial advice market. These indicators would also serve as a benchmark for measuring the impact of FAMR against its success factors set out in the final report. The baseline was published in June 2017[6], in a joint report by the FCA and HM Treasury.
2017 FAMR progress report
The FCA and the Treasury have published a progress report[7] reporting on the progress towards implementing the FAMR recommendations. The FAMR final report set out 28 recommendations which are addressed in the progress report.
2016 recommendations of the Financial Advice Working Group
FAMR recommended the establishment of a Financial Advice Working Group (FAWG), to support progress in the 12 months following the Review’s final report.
The Financial Advice Working Group was established in June 2016 and has been chaired by Nick Prettejohn. It has been responsible for taking forward the three recommendations assigned to it by FAMR via three subgroups and has published three reports together with a foreword from Nick Prettejohn.
- Foreword from Nick Prettejohn[8] (PDF)
- Rules of Thumb and Nudges: Improving the financial well-being of UK consumers[9] (PDF)
- Financial well-being in the workplace: A Way Forward[10] (PDF)
- Consumer explanations of “advice” and “guidance”[11] (PDF)
Find out more about the Working Group and its members[12], and read the FAWG terms of reference[13].
2016 FAMR final report and recommendations
FAMR published its final report on 14 March 2016. The review builds on improvements made to the financial advice industry brought about by the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) which raised the standards of professionalism across the financial advice market.
The recommendations outlined in the report were aimed at:
- providing affordable advice to consumers
- increasing the accessibility of advice
- addressing industry concerns relating to future liabilities and redress, without watering down levels of consumer protection.
The government and the FCA Board welcomed the report on 16 March 2016 and accepted the recommendations directed at the Treasury and the FCA respectively. The report also made recommendations directed towards employers, service providers and consumer groups.
The recommendations fell into 3 key areas: affordability, accessibility, and liabilities and consumer redress.
2015 Call for Input and responses to it
In 2015, HM Treasury and the FCA jointly published a Call for Input in order to inform the FAMR Final Report. The objective of this Call for Input was to understand the financial advice/guidance market better.
FAMR received 268 responses to the Call for Input[15]. The full list of non-confidential responses can be found in Annex C of the FAMR final report[18].
FAMR has published the non-confidential responses received via the web form[16].
Those that did not respond via the web form are ordered alphabetically below.
- Part 1: A[17] (also including LSG, Virgin Money, and Pensions Portal)
- Part 2: B-C[18]
- Part 3: D-H[19]
- Part 4: H-L[20]
- Part 5: L-N [21]
- Part 6: N-P[22]
- Part 7: P[23]
- Part 8: P-S[24]
- Part 9: S-T[25]
- Part 10: T[26] (also including EY)
- Part 11: T-Z[27]
2015 survey of firms providing financial advice
The FCA carried out a survey of 233 firms active in providing financial advice on retail investment products in November 2015. The report summarises the results of the survey:
Survey of firms providing financial advice[28]
The results from this survey informed FAMR and the proposals recommended. Additionally, the results of this survey are being used to inform our ongoing supervisory work in this area.
13/05/2019: Editorial amendment Added new FAMR publications
