Each year, this list purports to showcase the very best in regulated financial advisory practices across the UK, representing the breadth, depth and height of excellence that advisers across the country show every day.
Over the next four days we will be unveiling the names in the frame, culminating on Friday October 21 with the top 20 companies, ranked in order, and a special report with the full list and methodology.
Watch this space!
2022 marks 10 years since the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review; seven years since pension freedoms came into force and six years since the Financial Advice Market Review highlighted serious issues that needed to be addressed.
In 2022 we are continuing with the editor’s choice selection, which was introduced in 2021.And over that time, businesses have adapted to change, whether this be tax policy turning on a pin, dealing with the after-effects of the pandemic or embracing the digital transformation.
Most firms are still feeling their way into what Liz Truss has been calling a ‘new era’ - though this era of Trussonomics is looking like it could be a short one.
But finding the right balance between face-to-face advice and online services – as well as developing robust succession plans to future-proof the advice industry – could yet result in some significant changes to business models.
We will be keeping a close eye on that, as well as the more familiar challenges facing advisers and their firms, in the months and years ahead.
The methodology
FTAdviser tweaks its metrics every year to make sure the right mix of firms, large and small, are represented, with companies chosen not on profits or assets under management, but a range of markers.
The Top 100 Financial Advisers is based on Financial Clarity data, from ISS Market Intelligence.
Initially a longer list of 150 firms are chosen, based initially on their gross sales in the previous 12 months, July 2021 to June 2022.
This year, firms with gross sales of more than £175mn were eligible for inclusion compared with £150mn in 2021, £115mn in 2020 and £125mn in 2019.
Each firm is then scored on six different factors, such as their retention score, or the length of years the firm has been in business.
We also reward businesses that are either chartered by the Chartered Insurance Institute or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Of course, these standards are not a guarantee of good behaviour or good practices, but they remain a decent indication of a firm trying to do the right thing by its customers, and help to ensure our list is not compiled using financial metrics alone.
As a result, seven of our top 10 companies have either chartered or accredited status, as do 17 of the top 20.
The top 20 is where the rankings end this year. As per last year, businesses outside this group are now listed in alphabetical order, rather than based on the data.
We’ve done this so the list emphasises the companies themselves, rather than giving undue focus to a precise position in the rankings or how that position might have shifted year-on-year. Indeed, sometimes firms' positions might change significantly over the year.
In 2022 we are continuing with the editor’s choice selection, which was introduced in 2021. This is designed to recognise a company whose qualities might otherwise not be captured by our metrics.
This year, that choice is Clairville York, which only just missed out on entering the Top 100 this year and is a new entrant into the 150 or so firms that make up the long list.
Simoney Kyriakou is editor of FTAdviser
