What is financial advice?

Financial advice is a valuable service that provides individuals and businesses with personal recommendations to help make informed decisions about their finances. The advice can cover everything from budgeting, savings, investments, retirement, and tax planning. Financial advice is not to be confused with financial guidance. Financial guidance provides you with information about the options available to you, whilst financial advice will recommend products that would best suit your personal circumstances.

Do I need financial advice?

Whatever life stage you're at, financial advice can be help you to plan and manage your finances now and for your future. You don't have to be super-wealthy to benefit from financial advice. Whether you’re planning for your retirement or just a little peace of mind, we all want to preserve our wealth and maintain our financial security. Some of our clients have created their money, some have acquired or inherited it, and some earn higher incomes than average. With this comes a certain amount of complexity and the burden of increased taxes, so they turn to us for support and advice. If you’re unsure, you can arrange a no-obligation consultation with one of our advisers to discuss how financial advice can help you to achieve your future goals.

Is financial advice worth it?

When it comes to seeking guidance in critical aspects of our lives, we instinctively turn to professionals we trust: doctors for our health, solicitors for legal matters, dentists for our teeth and mechanics for our cars. These experts play integral roles in safeguarding our well-being, providing expert advice, and helping us navigate less familiar terrain. But there's a profession that often flies under the radar when it comes to recognition and trust: financial advisers. The value of financial advice can not be underestimated. As well as the kind of value you can measure in pounds and pence, there are also many non-tangible benefits to receiving financial advice, particularly when it comes to peace of mind. A lot of the strongest benefits of financial advice can only be realised if you have an ongoing, trusted relationship with your adviser. For example, if you just have a one-off recommendation – perhaps about an investment – you may end up making unwise decisions through periods of stock-market volatility, or you won’t be able to adjust your plan to suit your changing circumstances.

What is wealth management?

Put simply, wealth management means helping you make the most of your assets. That might include savings, investments, ways to share with your family and other strategies that make the funds you’ve worked for work for you – now and in the years ahead.

What does a financial adviser do?

When you picture professional financial advice, you might think about your tax bill, guidance on a particular investment, pensions, and mortgage advice. However, financial advisers do far more than this. It's not just about 'the most tax efficient way' to do this or that. You can think of a financial adviser as being like a personal trainer. They’ll help you figure out what your goals are, what you might need to achieve them and then help keep you on course as you work towards them. Regardless of personal circumstances, money touches all parts of our lives. Unfortunately, our brains are not naturally wired for effective financial decision-making. We’re prone to behavioural biases that can seriously harm our financial plans. A financial adviser can help steer you around these psychological traps. Additionally, unforeseen circumstances like bereavement or divorce can complicate our financial journeys and lead us to make poor decisions. Considering these challenges, it’s crucial to be fully informed and guided by an expert. The role of a financial adviser extends well beyond just being technically competent on mortgages or tax optimisation. The relationship between an adviser and a client can span not only years but also significant life events and milestones. A financial adviser is a crucial support system and knowledge-base for clients, their loved ones and future generations, guiding them in making informed and sensible decisions that can help secure their financial futures.

St. James’s Place: Real life, real advice

SJP St. James’s Place: Real life, real advice

Our latest Real Life Advice Report 2025

Chapter 2: Shaping the financial relationships of the future

Parents are increasingly torn between optimism and anxiety about their children’s financial futures, the latest chapter of SJP’s 2025 Real Life Advice report reveals. Key concerns include whether they will be able to get onto the property ladder, if they will earn enough through work and even whether they will be able to retire. Four out of 10 parents believe their children are unlikely to ever own their own home – something traditionally seen as a cornerstone of financial security.

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15.6m

parents (more than a third) fear their children may never be able to stop working

18 %

of parents taking ongoing advice state their children already have investments and ‘passive wealth’ compared to 8% of those without an adviser

Parents who receive ongoing financial advice are twice as likely to tell their children to put a financial plan in place.

On behalf of SJP, Opinium surveyed 8,000 UK adults nationwide between 22 July 5 August 2025.Quotas and post-weighting were applied to the sample to make the dataset representative of the UK adult population.

Previous chapters

Chapter 1: Advice in a volatile world

Chapter 1 of our Real Life Advice Report ‘Advice in a volatile world’ explores how people are feeling impacted by external factors such as economic uncertainty, and looks at the role of advice in growing confidence and optimism.

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“Over the coming months our Real Life Advice Report 2025 will once again use real life stories, and new insight, to understand and highlight the role professional advice plays in helping people and families reach their goals and address their challenges.”

Mark FitzPatrick,

Chief Executive Officer, St. James's Place

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Advice and products

With an advisers expert knowledge and advice, you can be certain you’re selecting the right products, whether you’re paying for a wedding or ready to retire.