What financial adviser marketing rules apply in the UK?

What to take away

Financial promotion rules apply to almost everything an adviser publishes, from a website page to a webinar invitation.
The firm that approves a promotion carries the compliance risk, and an unauthorised agency cannot take it on.
Consumer Duty asks you to evidence that marketing supports good client outcomes, not just that it avoids false claims.
Pension transfer and retirement income leads attract the closest scrutiny and need a documented file.
Data protection and electronic marketing consent sit under separate law, enforced by the Information Commissioner's Office.

Where the rules come from

The Financial Conduct Authority sets the standards for how authorised firms communicate with clients. COBS 4 of the FCA Handbook requires those communications to be fair, clear and not misleading.

That single test covers a printed brochure, an email sequence and a paid social advert.

Approval and outsourcing

Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 limits who may approve a financial promotion. An authorised firm can approve its own; otherwise an authorised person must sign it off.

An agency, copywriter or marketing consultant cannot take on that role unless they are authorised. In practice, your compliance function stays in the sign-off loop however the copy was drafted.

Consumer Duty and the evidence standard

The Consumer Duty requires firms to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. For marketing, that shifts the question from whether a claim is accurate to whether it helps the client make a good decision.

A promotion that is factually correct but steers a client towards a product they do not need can still fail that test. Keep the reasoning you recorded when you signed it off.

A marketing compliance checklist for advisers

Keep a promotions register listing the date, channel, author and approver for every item you publish.
Check each promotion against the fair, clear and not misleading test before it goes live, not afterwards.
Record the target audience and why the product suits them, particularly for retirement and transfer leads.
Store the approved final version, not just the draft, so you can reproduce what a client actually saw.
Review live pages and pinned social posts on a fixed cycle, because stale claims are still claims.
Train anyone who writes copy, including referral partners, on what they may and may not say.

Pension transfer lead generation

Pension transfer and defined benefit transfer advice sits at the sharp end of the rules. The FCA expects firms to treat transfer advice as a high-risk area, and lead generation for it needs the same discipline as the advice itself.

Pension transfer lead discipline

Paid search and social reach savers with final salary pensions
Apply and record qualifying criteria
Record questions asked before the lead reaches an adviser
Referrals from solicitors, accountants and will writers
Document introductions in a written referral system

Paid search and social campaigns aimed at savers with final salary pensions attract attention because the sums involved are large. Keep a record of the qualifying criteria you applied and the questions you asked before a lead reached an adviser.

Referrals from solicitors, accountants and will writers are often a lower-risk route into retirement work, and a written professional services referral system keeps those introductions documented and consistent.

Consent, email and the ICO

Separate law governs how you contact prospects. The UK GDPR, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, covers how you hold and use personal data, including the records behind a lead list.

Electronic marketing consent sits under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and the ICO's direct marketing guidance explains the soft opt-in and when consent is needed.

Most adviser enquiries come from professional or regulated sources rather than bought lists, which makes the record of how consent was given the key document. Cold data bought from a lead broker is hard to justify on that basis.

Consent must be specific, informed and unambiguous, and it must be as easy to withdraw as it was to give. A UK GDPR-compliant email marketing approach treats a bought list as unusable and builds permission at the point of enquiry instead.

This is general guidance; individual promotions need sign-off from your firm's compliance function or a qualified adviser.

Common questions

Do I need FCA approval before publishing marketing?

No. An authorised firm approves its own promotions, and the FCA reviews them afterwards only if a concern arises.

Can a marketing agency approve my promotions?

Only if it is authorised by the FCA for that activity. Most agencies are not, so the approving signature stays with your firm.

How long should I keep marketing records?

Keep approved versions for the life of the client relationship, plus the relevant limitation period, so you can reconstruct what a client was told.