The FCA has moved forward with one of the most significant reforms in its regulatory approach to consumer financial support in recent years: the Advice Guidance Boundary Review (AGBR) – Targeted Support Policy Sprint. The initiative, a joint project with His Majesty’s Treasury, aims to narrow the gap between high-level guidance and full financial advice, a boundary that, until now, has left many consumers underserved when making crucial financial decisions
Background: The Advice Gap and the Need for New Support
The AGBR was launched in December 2023 in response to persistent evidence that only a small proportion of UK adults access financial advice each year, leaving millions without meaningful support in key decision-making areas such as pensions and investment planning. Traditional financial advice that is comprehensive, personalised and regulated is out of reach for many due to cost and complexity, while basic guidance often lacks the context consumers need to act confidently.
The FCA and Government identified that millions more people could benefit from regulated help that sits between guidance and bespoke advice, provided they understand the nature of that help and the protections it affords. To address this, the FCA has developed Targeted Support, a new regulated form of support that allows authorised firms to offer appropriate suggestions to defined groups of consumers with similar characteristics
What is Targeted Support?
At its core, Targeted Support is designed to let consumers receive suggestions that are more personalised than standard guidance but are not individual advice. Under this framework:
- Firms can identify groups of customers with shared profiles (for example, retirees with excess cash savings or first-time investors).
- They can then offer suggested actions that are appropriate for that group’s typical needs and circumstances.
- The suggestions must be clearly communicated so consumers understand they are not receiving a personal recommendation.
Examples include suggestions around investing surplus cash in a more appropriate asset, altering pension withdrawal strategy, or shifting to a product more aligned with financial goals, without the firm having undertaken a full fact-find or offered a personalised recommendation.
Targeted Support Policy Sprint: Testing in the Real World
In February 2025, the FCA hosted an industry Policy Sprint focused exclusively on Targeted Support, using its Digital Sandbox environment to help firms prototype and test consumer journeys under the new regime. Over 12 FCA-authorised firms, including retail banks, investment platforms and wealth managers participated over six weeks to design and trial digital experiences conveying targeted suggestions.
The Sprint’s goals were to assess:
- Consumer engagement with targeted suggestions.
- Clarity of communication, particularly whether consumers understood they were not getting personalised advice.
- Effectiveness of different designs in helping consumers make informed decisions.
Participating firms built consumer-facing journeys, notably “cash-to-investment” paths for inexperienced investors with defined financial profiles and presented outcomes at a showcase event in April 2025.
Crucially, the Sprint also brought regulatory partners into the process, including The Pensions Regulator (TPR), the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to integrate consumer protection, complaints handling and data considerations into the Sprint outcomes.
Policy Development and Consumer Research
The FCA’s AGBR has been supported by extensive research and consultations:
- Consumer research notes exploring how individuals understand and react to Targeted Support communications in retail investments and pensions.
- Consultation papers and feedback statements, which informed the development of near-final rules. These exercises highlighted both potential benefits, such as broader help for consumers at scale and risks around consumer understanding and clarity of protections.
Regulatory Framework and Next Steps
In December 2025 the Government published an accessible policy note on Targeted Support, confirming legislative changes to enable the regime. The Government and FCA expect:
- An authorisation gateway for firms to begin applying for Targeted Support permissions in March 2026.
- The formal regime to come into effect in April 2026.
To facilitate high-quality applications, the FCA has expanded its Pre-Application Support Service (PASS), a voluntary early engagement mechanism helping firms refine their business models and regulatory approaches ahead of formal submissions.
Alongside these developments, the FCA plans to consult in early 2026 on further simplified advice reforms and additional clarifications to the advice-guidance boundary, aiming to cement a coherent framework for the next decade.
How Complyport Can Help?
We assist firms in the following areas:
- Targeted Support Permission and Regulatory Readiness:We support firms in assessing whether Targeted Support aligns with their business model and, where appropriate, preparing for the new permission gateway. This includes regulatory gap analysis, drafting application materials, developing board briefing papers and preparing firms for FCA supervisory engagement. We also assist in articulating clearly defined consumer cohorts, suitability rationale at group level, and evidencing Consumer Duty alignment.
- Governance, Controls and Consumer Duty Integration:Targeted Support will require robust governance frameworks despite sitting short of full advice. We help firms design and document oversight structures, management information, monitoring frameworks and escalation processes to demonstrate effective risk management. This includes reviewing disclosures, customer journey design, record-keeping and testing processes to ensure communications are clear, fair and not misleading, and that consumer understanding can be evidenced.
- Complaints, Redress and Risk Management Frameworks:Given the potential for boundary ambiguity and future complaints risk, firms must ensure their complaints handling and redress frameworks are proportionate and resilient. We conduct gap analyses of complaints procedures, review FOS exposure risk, assess professional indemnity arrangements and support firms in strengthening documentationand audit trails to mitigate regulatory and litigation risk.
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