Chris Williams, former chief executive of Ashcourt Rowan Financial Planning, is to launch an online consumer advisory business.
The new company, called WealthHorizon, will offer the option to speak to an adviser depending on the level of interaction required by each client.
Mr Williams said the telephone advisers will augment the simplified advice proposition and will refer to traditional planning firms for more complex advice, such as estate planning, inheritance tax and tax efficient savings and investments.
He said: “Our proposition has been built around the importance of making advice more accessible and affordable to those who feel alienated because they are unwilling or unable to pay high fees associated with traditional advice.
“The Retail Distribution Review has left a gap in the advice market and many people have been left without access to advice.
“We are providing a solution for those who are without a suitable way of investing, especially those who want their investments to work hard for them, but do not necessarily have needs which are complicated enough to warrant a traditional financial adviser.”
Mr Williams added that part of the UK population is “being left in the financial shadows and are not being served appropriately by the industry”.
He said: “This has to change. We feel there is a real gap in the market for consumer services which have the advantages of both online and human interaction.
“In the future, advisers will need to efficiently service a greater number of smaller clients. As such, we are developing a way of providing a greater online capability to advisers, enabling clients to undertake more transactions themselves.
“The underlying technology in the platform is going to be crucial to the success of the business. We needed to ensure it will be easy to use, flexible enough to meet our client’s needs and that it will have the back office functionality to ensure we can manage all the data and traffic.”
The WealthHorizon service will be powered by Parmenion.
Steve Gazzard, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning, added: “There is a lot of talk about a growing advice gap, but very little talk about how the industry intends to bridge it.
“What WealthHorizon are proposing will address the issue head on and, if the company does deliver on what it is saying, then it could change the face of the consumer advice market for the better. These are still early days, but it will be interesting to see how things develop.”
