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A practical guide to Guidance, Targeted Support, Simplified Advice and Full Advice
The UK financial advice landscape is evolving. The Financial Conduct Authority has moved away from a simple binary distinction between guidance and full regulated advice, towards a broader advice spectrum designed to close the advice gap while maintaining appropriate consumer protections.
This spectrum, spanning Guidance, Targeted Support, Simplified Advice and Full Holistic Advice, is intended to allow firms to support more consumers in more appropriate ways. However, many firms remain unclear on how these models differ in practice, where the regulatory boundaries sit, and what it takes to deliver them consistently and compliantly.
This article provides a practical overview of each advice model and explains how they fit together.
The FCA advice spectrum explained
For many years, firms have been constrained by a sharp divide. On one side sat non-regulated guidance. On the other, full regulated advice. This left a significant portion of consumers unsupported, particularly those with straightforward needs who did not require, or could not afford, comprehensive financial planning.
The FCA’s evolving framework recognises that different customer needs require different levels of personalisation, regulation and oversight.
At a high level, the advice spectrum includes:
- Guidance- non-regulated education and information
- Targeted Support- ready-made suggestions for defined customer segments
- Simplified Advice- regulated advice delivered within a limited scope
- Full Holistic Advice- comprehensive personal financial planning
Each model operates within distinct regulatory parameters and carries different requirements around data collection, disclosures, suitability and ongoing oversight.
Guidance, non-regulated education and engagement
Guidance represents the entry point for many consumers. It covers factual information, educational content and generic tools designed to help individuals understand financial concepts and options.
While guidance is non-regulated, it is not without risk. Firms must ensure that guidance does not stray into personal recommendations, and that communications are clear about what is and is not being provided.
Well-designed guidance can play an important role in building trust, improving financial understanding and creating natural progression routes into more personalised support when appropriate.
Targeted Support, bridging the advice gap
Targeted Support is one of the most significant recent developments in the UK advice landscape.
It allows firms to provide ready-made suggestions to clearly defined customer segments, based on limited information, without carrying out a full suitability assessment for each individual.
This model is intended to address the advice gap by offering scalable, cost-effective support for consumers with relatively straightforward needs. However, it also introduces new challenges.
Firms must be able to demonstrate:
- Clear and documented segmentation logic
- Robust controls around service boundaries
- Accurate and customer-validated data collection
- Transparent disclosures explaining limitations
- Comprehensive audit trails and outcome monitoring
Delivering Targeted Support compliantly requires more than good intentions. It demands strong operational design and supporting technology capable of enforcing boundaries and evidencing good consumer outcomes.
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We have published a concise guide that maps the full advice spectrum, explains regulatory boundaries in more detail, and outlines the operational and technology capabilities firms need to deliver these models at scale.
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Simplified Advice, regulated advice with limited scope
Simplified Advice sits firmly within the regulated advice framework. It involves making personal recommendations, but within a clearly defined and limited scope.
By constraining the analysis to specific products, goals or timeframes, Simplified Advice can reduce cost and complexity, making regulated advice accessible to a wider audience.
However, despite its limited scope, Simplified Advice still requires:
- Suitability assessments
- Appropriate fact-finding
- Clear rationale for recommendations
- Full documentation and auditability
The challenge for firms is commercial viability. Fully manual processes often make Simplified Advice uneconomic. Successful propositions rely on intelligent automation, embedded controls and efficient adviser oversight.
Full Holistic Advice, still the gold standard
Full Holistic Advice remains the most comprehensive form of financial advice and continues to be essential for clients with complex circumstances.
This model typically includes:
- Comprehensive fact-finding across all financial areas
- Cashflow planning and scenario modelling
- Integrated tax, pension and investment analysis
- Ongoing suitability reviews and portfolio monitoring
While digital tools increasingly support these journeys, the role of professional judgement, accountability and long-term client relationships remains central.
Importantly, the rise of Guidance, Targeted Support and Simplified Advice does not replace holistic advice. Instead, these models complement it, allowing firms to serve different client needs more effectively.
Why we wrote this guide
Over the past year, we have seen increasing uncertainty across the industry around how Guidance, Targeted Support and Simplified Advice fit together in practice.
Many discussions focus on regulation in isolation. Fewer address the operational and technology reality of delivering these models day to day, at scale, and with consistent governance.
We wrote this guide to provide a clear, practical reference that helps firms, advisers and industry partners understand how the advice spectrum works in reality, and what is required to deliver good outcomes across each model.
Download the practical guide
If you would like the full framework, including detailed delivery considerations, governance requirements and examples, you can download the guide below.
Get the full 20-page guide
