New digital tool brings affordable financial advice within reach for most

Everyone, regardless of how much or how little money they have, can benefit from good financial advice.

If your income is modest, it can help to tackle debt, build greater resilience and regain control of your financial future.  If you are comfortably off, it helps you plan for today, tomorrow and the day you retire.

But for most people, traditional financial advice is out of reach. Private wealth and corporate advisory group Foster Denovo has created MyAdvicePlace – MAP for short – to change this by providing:

• personalised, regulated, financial advice on key areas such as saving, investing, health insurance, income protection, buying a house and retiring in one easy to use platform: myadviceplace.co.uk
• your own unique financial MAP, based on a few clicks about your circumstances and goals.
• peace-of-mind because you’re protected by regulation, just like conventional advice.
• a personal contact: you can talk to a Foster Denovo financial adviser to discuss your plan and recommendations, as well as clarify any points.

Conventional advice models typically start in the hundreds of pounds with ongoing charges potentially pushing it into thousands, putting it out of reach for many. According to the Financial Conduct Authority, just under one in 10 people pay for advice in the UK.  MAP is a pathway to make it available to most of us.

Research amongst 1,500 people aged between 20 to 50, earning from under £15k to nearly £100k in different occupations and regions across the UK, helped to shine a light on attitudes to digital and hybrid tools to help bridge what’s become known as The Advice Gap.

Fifty-three per cent say they would be interested in a digital alternative, with 64 per cent believing personalised digital financial advice would eventually become the norm.

Foster Denovo Chief Operating Officer, Helen Lovett, said: “The advice gap – or chasm, frankly – is robbing too many people of the peace of mind we know professional financial advice provides.

“After advice, there’s guidance – information from which you make your own choice – but that simply does not span what is a real divide in affordable access to financial advice. Therefore, we’ve combined our experience and expertise as one of the leading financial advisory businesses in the UK, with the latest technology, so we can actually do something about it.

“MAP gives you firm directions, on a simple-to-use and secure website, reviewed by a qualified financial adviser, at a fraction of the cost of the traditional approach. It gives you a route to financial confidence now and in future.”

This latest development comes as Foster Denovo marks its 20^th anniversary this year. The group continues to expand its national adviser footprint, buying Verum Wealth in Glasgow at the start of 2025, after acquiring Brian Mole and 80Twenty in the Midlands last autumn and Rosemount – also in Glasgow – last summer.

Earlier in 2024, it doubled the size of its employee benefits division with Punter Southall’s corporate advisory arm and acquired wealth managers Wade Financial in Newcastle and Creative Financial Solutions in Hampshire to establish 13 offices across the UK.

Sources

MyAdvicePlace – MAP industry whitepaper

fca.org.uk/publication/financial-lives/fls-2024-financial-advice-support.pdf