I build websites for UK financial advice firms — IFAs, financial planners, wealth managers, retirement specialists — and I also build WealthR, a client portal for the same audience. Which means I see the same problem from both ends: principals trying to grow a book, and clients trying to navigate firms they're often quietly confused by. This post is what I wish more adviser firms knew before they commissioned their next website.
The three jobs a financial adviser website has to do
Strip everything else away and a website for a UK financial advice firm has three jobs. Most websites do one of them. The good ones do all three.
One: signal credibility before the phone call. Your prospect is about to hand someone several hundred thousand pounds of life savings. They need to believe, in those forty seconds, that you're a serious firm run by serious people. That belief is built through clean visual design, plain-English copy, a clearly stated specialism, and the visible markers of an FCA-authorised firm.
Two: qualify the prospect, not just collect them. Most adviser websites have a contact form that says "Get in touch." That's fine for a tradesperson; it's wrong for an advice firm with a longer sales cycle. Your site should help the right prospects self-identify ("I'm 58 and thinking about retirement", "I've just inherited", "I'm a business owner planning an exit") and gently warn off the wrong ones. A qualified lead is worth ten unqualified ones.
Three: stand up to a compliance review. Every word of marketing copy on a financial advice firm's website is a financial promotion under FCA rules. That doesn't mean walls of risk warnings — but it does mean every claim has to be clear, fair, and not misleading. A website that signals credibility but falls over at the first compliance review is a liability, not an asset.
"A qualified lead is worth ten unqualified ones. Your website should help the right prospects self-identify — and gently warn off the wrong ones."
Signal credibility before the call
What does credibility actually look like on an adviser website? Some of this is obvious; a lot of it isn't.
Visible authorisation and accreditation
Your FCA reference number should be visible in the footer of every page — not buried two clicks deep in a "Legal" page. If your advisers hold the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning, the Advanced Diploma, Chartered status, or are members of the Personal Finance Society, say so. If you're a Certified Financial Planner under the CISI, say so. These are the credentials prospects (and their adult children) actually Google.
Real people, not stock photos
I have nothing against stock photos in general. On an adviser website they look like exactly what they are: a firm hiding behind a curtain. A photo of the actual adviser, their actual desk, their actual office, beats anything you can buy from Shutterstock. Prospects want to know who they're entrusting their money to. Show them.
Specialism that's actually specialised
"We help clients achieve their financial goals" is what every adviser website says. It's also what no prospect Googles. Specialism — at-retirement planning, divorce advice, pension transfers, business owner planning, intergenerational wealth — is what gets you ranked and what gets you remembered. Pick a thing. Be the firm that does the thing. The general work follows on its own.
Qualify the prospect, not chase them
The single biggest difference between a website that converts and one that doesn't, for an advice firm, is whether it does any of the qualifying work before the first meeting.
Self-identification routes
Give prospects routes that match how they actually think about themselves. "I'm approaching retirement." "I've just inherited." "I'm a business owner." "I've been recommended you by a friend." Each route can lead to a slightly different page that speaks to that situation specifically — the same firm, the same advisers, but framed for the person reading.
Fee transparency
This is the single most controversial point I make to firms, and I make it anyway: if your fees are roughly comparable to the market and you're proud of the value you deliver, publish your fee structure. Not the exact pence — that's impossible without knowing the client — but a clear, plain-English explanation of how you charge (fixed fee, percentage, hourly, tiered) and the rough ranges involved. Firms that hide fees attract prospects who are price-shopping. Firms that publish fees attract prospects who are value-shopping. The latter are the clients you want.
A nurture path for prospects who aren't ready
Most advice prospects need six to eighteen months of gentle contact before they're ready to engage. A "Contact us" form alone is a missed opportunity. Offer something useful — a short guide on retirement income planning, a quarterly market commentary, a podcast — that prospects can subscribe to without committing to a meeting. Then run a thoughtful email sequence that keeps you top of mind without ever feeling pushy. This is exactly the kind of email work I do, and it's the single most underused asset in the UK advice market.
Stand up to a compliance review
Financial promotions rules apply to every word on your website that promotes your services. The headline rule — clear, fair, not misleading — is the test every page has to pass. In practice that means:
- No performance promises. "We grow your wealth" is a promise. "We help you plan and invest with a clear strategy" is a description. Know the difference.
- Balanced risk warnings. Any discussion of investments needs an honest acknowledgement that capital is at risk and past performance is not a guide to future performance.
- Accurate fee disclosure. If you publish fees, they have to be accurate and up to date. If you don't, the route to a fee conversation needs to be clear.
- Plain-English jargon explanations. If you mention SIPPs, ISAs, drawdown, annuities, MiFID II, or anything that sounds like alphabet soup to a member of the public, explain it briefly the first time. Consumer Duty expects communications to be understandable.
- Clear regulatory disclosure. Who's authorised, by whom, under what FCA reference, and where to find the firm on the FCA register.
- Cookie and privacy compliance. UK GDPR plus PECR (the cookie regulations) plus accessible privacy policy.
What about Consumer Duty?
Consumer Duty has been in force for retail financial services since July 2023 and for closed products since July 2024. The cross-cutting rules — to act in good faith, to avoid foreseeable harm, and to support customers in achieving their financial objectives — apply just as much to your website as to your advice documents.
In practical website terms that means: communications and disclosures designed for the actual reader to understand, not for the regulator to tick off; clear product information including fees and limitations; and a website experience that doesn't create unnecessary friction for vulnerable customers. A site that's deliberately confusing about fees, or that buries cancellation information, or that makes accessibility an afterthought, is harder to defend under the Duty than it used to be.
The good news: getting Consumer Duty right on a website is mostly a matter of plain writing, fair pricing transparency, and basic accessibility. None of it is exotic. All of it is straightforward when you build the site with it in mind from the start.
Where does the technology stack fit in?
Most advice firms run on a back-office and platform stack that looks something like Intelliflo, Iress (Xplan), True Potential, or one of the smaller alternatives, paired with a portfolio platform like Transact, AJ Bell, or Quilter. Your website doesn't replace any of that. It sits in front of it.
What the website should do, technically, is feed the rest of the stack cleanly. Enquiries from the contact form should land somewhere your team actually checks. Email sign-ups should flow into a marketing platform (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo). Client logins, if you offer them, should route to whatever portal you actually use — whether that's the portal built into your back-office, a third-party tool, or something purpose-built like WealthR.
The temptation, particularly for smaller firms, is to ask the website to do everything — be the brochure, be the portal, be the back-office. Don't. The website should be excellent at being a website. The portal should be excellent at being a portal. They should look like they belong to the same firm, share login where it makes sense, and stay in their lanes otherwise.
A simple checklist before you commission the next site
- One clearly stated specialism on the homepage, in the first scroll.
- Real photos of real advisers — at least the principals.
- Visible FCA reference number and authorisation statement in the footer.
- Credentials and accreditations named on the team page (Chartered, CFP, PFS, CISI, etc.).
- Self-identification routes — "I'm approaching retirement", "I've just inherited", "I'm a business owner".
- Honest fee guidance — at minimum the structure, ideally the rough ranges.
- A subscribe option that isn't "Contact us" — a guide, a newsletter, something genuinely useful.
- A long-cycle nurture email sequence for prospects who aren't ready to engage yet.
- Plain-English explanations of any technical product names the first time they appear.
- Risk warnings and disclaimers that are honest and proportionate, not bolted on as an afterthought.
- Consumer Duty-aware design — accessibility, fee transparency, no dark patterns.
- Clean integration with your back-office, marketing platform, and (if relevant) client portal.
- Mobile-first build — most prospects research you on a phone.
- Fast page speed — under two seconds to interactive, ideally.
The bottom line
The best adviser website in the UK isn't the one with the slickest animations or the most clever copy. It's the one that, in forty seconds, makes the right prospect think: this is a serious firm, run by serious people, who specialise in the thing I actually need help with, and whose fees are roughly comparable to what I'd expect. Everything else is window dressing.
Most adviser websites I see fail this test not because the firm is bad — almost always the firm is excellent — but because the site was built either by a back-office vendor as an afterthought, or by a generic web designer who didn't know what Consumer Duty was. Neither is fatal. Both are fixable.
If you're a UK advice firm and any of this resonates, I build websites for exactly this audience. Have a look at the advice-firm section of the homepage, or just drop me a message describing your firm and where you think the current site falls short.