Consumer Duty and the small advice firm
The rules were written for the whole market. The cost of complying with them does not scale down.
Consumer Duty asks every firm to evidence outcomes, review value, and document the reasoning. For a large firm that is a project with a budget. For a three-adviser business it is the principal's evenings.
The result is a quiet squeeze: the work is real, the fee income has not moved, and the hours come out of client time. Advisers who used to see forty clients a year properly now see thirty and file more.
There are only three honest responses. Grow enough to carry the overhead, buy the function in, or hand it to someone whose job it is. Securo exists because the third one is a legitimate answer and is rarely offered without also demanding the business.
Firms talk about recruitment. The harder number is how many principals have no plan for the day they stop.
Ten clients, forty per cent of the income, and a discount you will not see coming.
Most of the argument in an advice-firm deal is about the part you get paid later.
Thinking about your own timeline?
Twenty minutes, confidential, and no obligation.
- A buyer, not a broker
- Confidential from the first call
- Value my practice