The annual review is itself under review, and according to WealthTech provider Ortec Finance, the commercial consequences could be profound.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s consultation on scrapping the mandatory yearly check-in has been widely welcomed, but Ortec Finance argues the industry has been slow to confront the harder question: without the review anchoring the service proposition, can advisers still justify their annual fees?
The annual review emerged from an era of reform. The Retail Distribution Review and later MiFID II lifted standards and placed greater weight on ongoing suitability, and a commercial model crystallised around the review event. The FCA puts average ongoing fees at 0.8% per annum, while consultancy NextWealth estimates typical initial advice fees at around £2,000. Remove the review, Ortec Finance warns, and those fees become harder to defend.
The scale of the problem is stark. The Lang Cat’s Advice Gap Report 2025 found just 9% of the UK population paid for financial advice in the past two years. Ortec Finance suggests the remaining 91% are not avoiding advice by choice, but are priced out by a model that does not work for simpler needs. That said, clients navigating complex drawdown, inheritance or major life transitions still benefit from structured, adviser-led engagement, and for them the review remains core to the proposition.
Technology is central to any new regime. Platforms, integrated planning tools and goals-based financial planning software can continuously monitor client outcomes, flagging when someone drifts off track and giving advisers an evidenced basis for suitability without a formal review.
Yet Ortec Finance cautions this is no silver bullet. Royal London’s 2025 Meaning of Value research found reassurance and peace of mind rank above investment performance in what clients value most, and enterprise-grade planning platforms carry licence costs that weigh heavily on smaller practices.
The revenue model will inevitably shift. NextWealth found two-thirds of advisers identified clients they needed to exit during 2024, with over half expecting offboarding to rise, while The Lang Cat predicts ongoing fees will fall from 0.8% to 0.6%. Offboarded clients will not disappear; banks, insurers and large wealth managers are positioning to serve them at scale, aided by the FCA’s targeted support regime.
Ortec Finance sees a clear strategic imperative for IFAs: retain the review, but reposition it as a premium, elected service for clients wanting in-depth engagement, with always-on monitoring serving everyone else. NextWealth’s Fee Benchmarking 2026 report found 97% of clients who fully understand what they pay for rate value as good or excellent.
As the firm puts it, “Advisers must be honest about which parts of the client book remain sustainable.”
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