Originally appeared in
Bigger is not always better when it comes to financial advisers
Published in The Sunday Times on September 28, 2025.
Consolidation in the financial advice sector has had much airtime recently, with several brokerages being acquired by large corporate entities, often backed by private equity. One aspect of the debate that has been overlooked in Ireland is the effect on clients, with views often reflecting whether the commentator represents a sole or boutique firm, or a large corporate office.
Research in the UK by the investment consultancy Albemarle Street Partners found 73 per cent of advisers said that consolidation had not been good for clients. Almost 60 per cent said it led to a “weaker focus on the best interest of clients” while 28 per cent said it meant “less individualised financial advice”.
What can happen with consolidators, having initially captured the value contained in the book of clients, can then in a sense commoditise the acquired firms by channelling them to their own investment platform. The economies of scale, achieved by means of more standardised and less personalised advice, can lead to greater profitability, but at what cost to client outcomes? As we all know, in investing there are no free lunches.
I recently heard commentary from the owner of a large advice firm that there were too many sole advisers in Ireland. Being a sole adviser, this didn’t sit well with me. It came into my mind again recently when I was travelling to a meeting with a client who needed help with a life cover claim. The payout of just under €500,000 was small compensation for what the family had been through in recent months, but it meant they didn’t have to endure a financial crisis alongside a personal one.
The origin story of this life policy is telling. The clients approached me for help a few years ago. They had received a letter informing them that the monthly premium on a whole-of-life policy, which they had taken out some years earlier through a large brokerage, had been reviewed and was about to be raised to an amount that would make it impossible to maintain. A peculiarity of whole-of-life cover is that unless it is subject to a guaranteed premium, it rarely stays affordable for life. Like many who took out these policies, these clients hadn’t realised their premium could be reviewed. I made representations to the life company and, after some discussion, a compromise was agreed whereby the clients were allowed to convert to a policy with a guaranteed premium. A good result for the client, brought about by an action that would never be included in any corporate KPI report.
“Should targets be permitted when financial advice is based on needs?”
An as yet unresolved debate in financial services is whether targets should be permitted at all when financial advice is supposed to be based on needs. There’s a saying in the corporate world that “what gets measured gets done”, and during my time in that sphere I can attest that while there were plenty of targets, there was no target for helping.
A sole adviser by definition has neither superiors to set targets nor subordinates on whom to impose them. What a sole adviser or boutique firm does is try to help as many clients as they can. Everything flows from that.
Product providers to large brokerages that channel large volumes of business to them as “good producers”, and they treat them accordingly. Some would say that the special treatment that some large advisory firms receive from product producers means that they are hopelessly conflicted when it comes to fighting their client’s corner.
I can’t remember who originally wrote it but the truest statement I have ever read about the financial advice world, which has stuck in my mind for years, is that “the further you as a client are removed from the owner of your advice firm, the lower the accountability and quality of client outcomes will be”.
Personalised and client-focused financial planning isn’t scalable, as has been proven by the failure of a number of robo-advisers. I’ve had several approaches recently from people who want real financial planning from a real person. Increasingly, discerning clients with access to better information seem to agree that there are many things in life where big is beautiful – but financial advisory isn’t one of them.
Eoghan Gavigan is a certified financial planner and the owner of Highfield Financial Planning hfp.ie
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