Wealth Advisors: directory of firms

Under a discretionary mandate the manager makes the decisions within limits you have agreed, and reports afterwards. It suits people who want the portfolio traded consistently and do not want to authorise every change, and it depends entirely on the mandate being written properly.

Advisory management keeps the decision with you. The firm recommends, you accept or refuse, and each recommendation is a regulated personal recommendation with the redress rights that attach to it. It is slower, and in volatile markets it can mean a recommendation arrives and is acted on days later.

Execution-only means you decide and the firm simply deals. No suitability assessment is made and no recommendation is given, so there is nothing to complain about later except the execution itself.

In most arrangements the adviser advises, a platform or custodian holds the investments in a nominee account and administers the tax wrappers, and fund managers run the underlying money. Three separate firms, three separate sets of terms, three separate failure scenarios.

Ask in writing which entity holds the assets, how client money and client assets are segregated, and what would happen to your holdings if the adviser firm ceased trading. Assets held in a nominee account are recorded as yours rather than as the firm's, which is what makes them recoverable rather than part of a failed firm's estate.

Managing investments is the permission that allows discretionary portfolio management. Advising on investments and arranging deals in investments are separate. A firm that advises but does not manage cannot run a discretionary portfolio, and a firm that manages but cannot advise should not be giving you a personal recommendation.

Also read the firm's status. Appointed representatives appear under a principal, and the principal is answerable for them. The Register's Directory shows the individuals carrying on regulated activities, their roles and any regulatory action, and the FCA publishes warnings about clone firms that copy an authorised firm's details. Taking the contact details from the Register itself is the simplest defence against that.

FSCS cover is per eligible person, per failed firm, and the amount depends on what failed. For investment claims against firms that failed after 1 April 2019 the limit is 85,000 pounds. Cash held with a bank, building society or credit union is protected separately: the deposit limit rose to 120,000 pounds for firms failing from 1 December 2025, having been 85,000 pounds since 30 January 2017.

There is also temporary high balance cover of up to 1.4 million pounds for six months from the date of deposit, which matters after a house sale, a redundancy payment or an inheritance lands in a current account while decisions are made.

Spreading money across firms only helps if they are genuinely separate firms. Several well-known brands share a single banking licence, and the limit applies per licence, so check before assuming two accounts mean two lots of cover.

Inheritance tax planning, trusts and wills sit across several professions. The standard inheritance tax threshold is 325,000 pounds and the rate above it is 40 per cent, reduced to 36 per cent where at least 10 per cent of the net estate is left to charity. The threshold can rise to 500,000 pounds where a home is left to children or grandchildren, and any unused threshold can usually pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner.

An authorised adviser can recommend investments and pensions that interact with those rules, but drafting a will or a trust deed is legal work. Expect a wealth firm to coordinate with a solicitor and an accountant rather than to do everything itself, and be sceptical of any scheme sold mainly on its tax outcome.