Real Life Advice Report 2025: Chapter 1 - Why milestones often spark the search for financial advice

People rarely wake up one morning and decide to find a financial adviser. There’s usually a trigger, and often it’s a personal one.

From getting married and buying a home to retirement or moments of loss, milestones in life can spark a search for some expert financial advice.

The first chapter of this year’s Real Life Advice Report explores the impact of big life events on financial behaviour – and the role advice can play in navigating it.

Milestones as a financial advice trigger

The survey highlighted the extent to which milestones can lead to a person seeking financial advice.

While there are plenty of other worries right now, such as the cost-of-living crisis, geopolitical turmoil and an upcoming Autumn Budget, nearly half of people (44%) accessing some form of advice say that a personal milestone is a key reason.

This follows a similar pattern to last year’s report, when 48% of people said they first took financial advice due to a major life event, such as getting married or buying a house.

Milestones can be exciting, but also overwhelming and unsettling.

They include celebrating a big birthday, such as a 50th or 60th, and buying a property, which is often the biggest asset someone will ever own. Getting married, receiving an inheritance and retiring are also milestones that can prompt someone to seek advice.

The big life events

The most common life event to drive someone to seek financial advice in 2025, according to the report, is “reaching a certain age”, with 15% of respondents giving that answer.

Almost the same number (14%) said buying a property had sparked a search for financial advice.

Retirement was cited as a reason by 10% of adults, while receiving an inheritance was mentioned by 9%. About 6% of people said marriage had prompted them to seek financial advice.

Away from these conventional milestones, unexpected events can also be a catalyst for people to look for financial advice.

The report reveals that almost one in ten (9%) of people who experienced a change in job status received advice, while 3% said divorce was a trigger.

A changing economic environment

Other drivers for accessing advice in 2025 are feelings of uncertainty and economic headwinds.

Three in ten people say they are seeking advice because of the changing policy or economic environment, be it the cost of living, mortgage pressures, inflation or sudden changes in the economy.

One in ten say that a change in the economy led them to receive advice, while 7% name “high mortgage rates” as a reason. With the Bank of England base rate sitting at 4%, mortgage costs are much more expensive now compared to just a few years ago. Between 2009 and 2021, the base rate was never higher than 1.5%.

Nearly one in six (16%) pinpoint the cost of living as the reason for accessing some type of advice. While inflation has broadly fallen over the past few years, it is still almost twice as high as the Bank of England’s 2% target.

The value of financial advice

Whatever the reason for someone seeking financial advice, the report argues that planning for the future can help people achieve their goals at milestone moments - and ease the burden during turbulent times.

As Mark FitzPatrick, CEO of St. James’s Place, says: “Those accessing professional ongoing advice are more optimistic and more confident about the future, and importantly more on track against their savings and investment goals despite the noise around them.”

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.

Background

Opinium surveyed 8,000 UK adults nationwide between 22nd July and 5th August 2025. Quotas and post-weighting were applied to the sample to make the dataset representative of the UK adult population. Within this poll, the relevant weighted sub-samples were:

• Men, women, other gender, 18-34, 35-54, 55+, Scotland, Northern Ireland, North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, East of England, London, South East, South West, working, self-employed, student, retired, unemployed, other not working.