FTAdviser Top 100 Financial Advisers 2021
Our rundown of the top UK financial advice firms
Welcome to the Top 100 2021
Welcome to FTAdviser’s Top 100 Financial Advisers for 2021, our snapshot of some of the best advice firms in the country.
The context for this list is a sector that’s once again in a state of flux. Most firms in our rankings would attest to the fact that business activity remains healthy. All the same, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to ripple through the financial advice industry. At a business level, last year’s focus on digital services has been superseded by the question of how best to cater to clients in future.
Most firms are still feeling their way into this new era. But finding the right balance between face-to-face advice and online services could yet result in some significant changes to business models.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on that, as well as the more familiar challenges facing advisers and their firms, in the months and years ahead.
Onto the list itself: FTAdviser’s Top 100 Financial Advisers is based on data provided by London-based Financial Clarity, an arm of ISS Market Intelligence.
In keeping with the changes introduced last year, we also reward businesses that are either chartered by the Chartered Insurance Institute or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
These standards aren’t a guarantee of good behaviour or good practices.
But they remain a decent indication of a firm trying to do the right thing by its customers, and ensure our list isn’t compiled using financial metrics alone.
As a result, eight of our top 10 companies have either chartered or accredited status, as do 17 of the top 20.
The top 20 is where the rankings end this year. Businesses outside this group are now listed in alphabetical order, rather than based on the data. We’ve done this so the list emphasises the companies themselves, rather than giving undue focus to a precise position in the rankings or how that position might have shifted year-on-year.
Equally, we consider it important to retain a small group of firms that our metrics rank as the best of the best at the top of the list.
One final change for 2021 is the introduction of an editor’s choice selection. This is designed to recognise a company whose qualities might otherwise not be captured by our metrics. This year, that choice is The Private Office.
Dan Jones, editor-in-chief, FTAdviser
The list
1-20
1. Bartlett Wealth Management
2. Mercer
3. Pharon IFA
4. Close Brothers Asset Management
5. The Fry Group
6. Argyle Consulting
7. Westminster Wealth Management
8. Advanta Wealth
9. Quilter
10. Mazars Financial Planning
11. Wingate Group
12. McHardy Financial
13. Altor Wealth
14. Tait Walker
15. Paradigm Norton
16. EQ Investors
17. Investment Quorum
18. Cullen Wealth
20. CHN Financial Consultancy
A-E
1825
A&J Wealth Management
Antrams Financial Services
Apogee Wealth Management
Astute Private Wealth
Balmoral Asset Management
Barclays
Beaufort Financial
Beckett Investment Management
Best Practice
Brooks Macdonald
Brown Shipley
Canaccord Genuity
Carrington Investment Consultants
Cathedral Financial Management
Chase de Vere
Chetwood Wealth Management
Clark Gillone
Continuum
CRS Consultants
Douglas Steers & Co
Edison Wealth Management
Ellis Bates
Emery (IFA)
Equilibrium Financial Planning
F-M
Fairstone
Fidelius
Financial Advice & Services
Foster Denovo
Gale & Phillipson
Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management
Hargreaves Lansdown
HFMC Wealth
Howard Wright
Hoyl
HSBC
Hugh Davies Associates
InPartnership
Johnston Campbell
Kerr Henderson
LEBC Group
LGT Vestra
Lumin Wealth
Lyncombe Consultants
Martin Aitken Financial Services
Mattioli Woods
McCrea Financial Services
Moore & Smalley
Mutual Financial Management
MWS Financial Advisers
N-Z
NatWest
NLP Financial Management
Oakwood Asset Management
Openwork
Origen
Partners Wealth Management
PenLife Associates
Premier Financial Management
Premier Wealth Planning
Prism Financial Advice
The Private Office
Progeny
Punter Southall
Reeves Independent
Russell Ulyatt Financial Services
Sandringham Financial Planning
Sanlam
Scrutton Bland
Sense Network
Sesame
Skerritts
St James's Place
Tavistock Investments
Tenet
Validpath
Vintage Wealth
Wade Financial
Wills & Trusts Wealth
WPS Advisory
Wren Sterling
How the list is created
In 2021, we have increased the importance we place on firms being chartered by the CII or accredited by the CISI. This metric now accounts for an average of 9 per cent of each firm’s score, up from 4 per cent last year.
While this figure remains low in absolute terms, the way the list is calculated means it does help offset the emphasis placed on flows and assets under management.
Methodology: the key points
- AUM held on relevant platforms accounted for an average of 49 per cent of each adviser’s score.
- Net flows as a proportion of AUM accounted for an average of 26 per cent of each adviser’s score.
- Company age accounted for an average of 9 per cent of each adviser’s score.
- Asset retention accounted for an average of 5 per cent of each adviser’s score.
- Estimated performance accounted for an average of 2 per cent of each adviser’s score.
- CII or CISI company-level accreditation accounted for an average of 9 per cent of each advisers’ score.
As the above bullet points indicate, we look at factors including the growth rate of advisory businesses, AUM and asset retention, and the number of years’ experience each business has managing assets in different economic and interest-rate environments.
In order to check how advisers are managing their clients’ investments, Financial Clarity used data received directly from fund managers covering the vast majority of the retail investment market, plus 14 of the nation’s biggest investment platforms. In most cases, that means advice companies’ own platforms are not included. As a result, the Top 100 Financial Advisers list incorporates not a company’s stated level of AUM, but rather the amount held on those 14 investment platforms and with most of the nation’s biggest fund houses.
Displayed figures have been rounded to two significant figures and include assets in retail advisory investments and pensions, reported to Financial Clarity. On top of this, firms are only included if they had £150m of gross sales or more over the 12-month period. The likes of DFM assets are not included unless submitted to ISS as such.
Clients also want to know if the adviser they see today will help them through the financial ups and downs of tomorrow. With that in mind, the list also continues to rate businesses on their ability to keep clients in their ranks.
Experience counts too. The average company has been in business for 44 years – one year less than in 2020. Strip out the handful of larger firms that have been in existence since the 19th century, and the average is still close to 35 years.
When it comes to external certification, there are cases where some appointed representatives or parts of a firm are either chartered or accredited, and others are not. In these instances, points were awarded based on the percentage of AUM held by chartered or accredited firms.
To see the 2020 list, click here.
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