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.

Financial advice

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

SJP Financial advice

Why financial advice is invaluable

Financial advice is the heart of our business. It offers reassurance and guidance amid the noise of difficult financial decisions. It helps you to stay on track in making your money work harder for you.

Yet it is about more than simply aiming to achieve better investment returns. To be its most effective and valuable, it is an ongoing relationship.

This relationship can offer continuity, a deeper understanding of your goals and objectives, and peace of mind for your financial future.

The power of advice

In 2024, and then again in 2025, SJP commissioned a national survey to delve into the sentiment of the nation when it comes to the subject of financial advice. The results of these Real Life Advice Reports revealed a number of interesting stats on when, how and why people lean into the support of financial planning experts and the value they can add.

95% of people receiving ongoing financial advice say it helps them reach and stay on track with their goals.
Advised individuals are twice as likely to feel optimistic about the future (54% advised vs 30% non-advised).
Nearly a quarter (23%) of adults made changes to their finances during Budget speculation - with one in five (20%) now regretting doing so.
Those receiving ongoing financial advice are more than twice as likely to have a plan in place with a clear purpose, life goals, timeline (74% advised vs 34% not advised).

Read more about the value of advice in our brochure below.

Why financial advice is invaluable

The Real Life Advice Reports 2025 were commissioned by St. James’s Place and the research was carried out by Opinium on our behalf.

2025: Opinium surveyed 8,000 UK adults nationwide between 22nd July and 5th August 2025 and refreshed shorter surveys of a further 2,050 UK adults between 28th November and 6th December 2025.

Quotas and post-weighting were applied to the samples to make the datasets representative of the UK adult population.

The benefit of ongoing personal advice

With ongoing advice, an SJP Partner can review your financial plan and help you:

Plan for what matters

Whether that’s a comfortable retirement, helping family, or protecting yourself from the unexpected.

Make more of your money

By matching your investments to what you want to achieve.

Keep more of what you earn

By making full use of tax advantages.

Stay on track

When markets wobble, having someone to remind you why you’re investing and to stop you making knee-jerk decisions.

It’s a deeply personal and collaborative relationship, built on trust – providing council and guidance to stay on track in succeeding in your goals – today and tomorrow, through highs and lows.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

Choosing the right financial adviser

Why do you need a financial plan?

The best thing about having a personal financial plan is that it helps you feel more in control. Working with our financial advisers means you can create a plan to help achieve your personal and family goals, and have the confidence to take the next step.

Creating a financial plan

How to have better conversations about money

Many of us would rather avoid conversations about money. However, communicating clearly and openly with family members about money matters can have huge benefits – not only for your mutual finances, but also for your own happiness and peace of mind.

Start talking

Financial planning for families

While you’ll want to enjoy life as much as possible, and feel secure in your long-term plans, you may also want to support the people you care about most. By having a clear idea of what’s right for your family, and for you, it’s possible to create a financial plan that works for everyone.

Find out more

Our scale and expertise

Our Partnership approach brings a client the best of both worlds. Personal, tailored advice through a trusted relationship with your adviser - backed by the scale, expertise and security of a leading company.

The additional benefits to being advised in partnership with an SJP Partner and SJP, include:

Central annual reporting, digital services and administration so people are always available to help
Provision of subject matter experts to analyse regulatory or industry changes keeping our community ahead of market and policy changes
Strong corporate governance and compliance to help keep your money secure
Robust internal controls, financial safety cushions, and strict regulatory safeguards
A dedicated team ever vigilant in guarding against cyber threats to keep data and investments secure
St. James's Place guarantees the suitability of the advice given by members of the St. James's Place Partnership when recommending any of the wealth management products and services available from companies in the Group, more details of which are set out here.

Stories of invaluable advice

Discover how expert financial advice from St. James’s Place has impacted the lives of real people and their loved ones.

Read our client stories

Client reviews

You don’t have to be super-wealthy to benefit from financial advice. Anyone can gain from expert knowledge. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re 25 or 65 years old; you can start turning your wealth to your advantage from any age or stage in your life. But don’t take our word for it.

See what our clients say