FT Adviser reported on 2 October 2026 that around 8.6 million UK adults aged 35 to 70 had at least £20,000 in investible assets but did not pay for financial advice. The report, which attributes the finding to the Lang Cat, associates that group with £1.61 trillion in assets. Its accessible text says cost was the most common reason people did not access regulated financial advice.
Those figures describe a reported estimate, not a verified measure of how many people can afford a particular advice service. The threshold, the calculation behind the £1.61 trillion and the full range of reasons for not taking advice are not explained in the accessible report.
What the reported advice gap measures
The “affluent advice gap” is the phrase used in FT Adviser’s headline for a group identified in research attributed to the Lang Cat. The report describes around 8.6 million UK adults aged 35 to 70 who held at least £20,000 in investible assets and did not pay for financial advice. It does not say that these adults had the same financial circumstances or needs.
The £1.61 trillion figure is the asset estimate in the headline. FT Adviser’s accessible text does not explain how it was calculated or which asset categories it includes, so it should be treated as a reported headline figure rather than an independently checked total. FT Adviser’s report was published on 2 October 2026 and is by Hereward Mills.
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Why the £20,000 threshold does not prove someone can afford advice
Having at least £20,000 in investible assets does not, by itself, show that a person can afford every form of advice. The reported threshold does not establish household circumstances, access to cash, debts, income, financial commitments or the cost and scope of a service they might need. The report’s accessible text frames the group as potentially able to afford advice; that is not proof that each person can pay for a particular service.
Nor does “do not pay for financial advice” necessarily mean that everyone in the group has never received advice, has the same unmet need, or would benefit from the same kind of support. Those distinctions are not detailed in the accessible account.
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What the report says about cost
Cost was the most common reason given for not accessing regulated financial advice, according to the accessible text. It does not provide the percentage of respondents who named cost, a complete ranking of other reasons, or details about how responses were collected. The finding therefore identifies cost as the leading reported reason, but does not quantify how widespread it was or explain the experience of each person in the group.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What remains unclear about the estimate
The full FT Adviser story requires a free account, and the underlying Lang Cat research and methodology were not available in the accessible material. In particular, the report text reviewed does not establish:
- When the survey or other fieldwork took place.
- How participants were sampled or how the findings were weighted.
- Exactly what counted as “investible assets.”
- How the £1.61 trillion headline figure was calculated.
- The full set of reasons people gave for not accessing regulated advice, or their response percentages.
Without those details, the reported numbers are useful as an indication of the scale the Lang Cat research attributes to people outside paid advice, but they do not support a more precise explanation of the population or the asset total.
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What readers can take from the figures
- The estimate concerns UK adults aged 35 to 70, not the entire UK population.
- The reported asset threshold is at least £20,000 in investible assets; it does not establish an individual’s ability to afford a specific advice service.
- The reported group does not pay for financial advice, and cost was the most common reason cited for not accessing regulated advice in the accessible account.
- The £1.61 trillion figure is attached to the FT Adviser headline, but its calculation and asset categories are not explained in the accessible text.
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