How to check a financial adviser is FCA authorised
Handing over details about your money, and taking guidance on what to do with it, is one of those situations where trusting the wrong person can be genuinely costly. Anyone can put "financial expert" in a social media bio or set up a slick-looking website. Giving regulated financial advice in the UK, however, is a different matter entirely, and it is worth understanding exactly what that difference means before you get in touch with anyone.
Under the Financial Services and Markets Act, most firms and individuals carrying out regulated financial activities — including giving investment, pension, mortgage or insurance advice — must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, the body that regulates financial services across the UK. A firm or adviser describing themselves as "FCA authorised and regulated" is making a specific, checkable claim, not just a marketing phrase, and it is a claim worth verifying rather than taking on trust.
That verification is straightforward, and it is free. The Financial Services Register, at register.fca.org.uk, is the FCA's own public record of every firm and individual it has authorised, or previously authorised, to carry out regulated activities. You can search it by firm name, individual adviser name, or by a firm's unique reference number, and the entry will show whether the firm's status is currently authorised, what specific activities it is permitted to carry out — advising on investments and advising on mortgages, for example, are separate permissions, so a firm authorised for one is not automatically authorised for the other — along with its trading names and registered address.
Authorisation matters practically, not just as a formality. If you deal with an authorised firm and something goes wrong, you generally have the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, a free and independent complaints body, and if the firm later fails while owing you money as a result of bad advice, you may be able to claim through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Deal with an unauthorised firm, and neither of these protections is normally available to you.
FSCS protection itself is worth understanding in outline, because it is easy to muddle two different limits that apply to two different things. If an authorised investment or advice firm fails and you lose out as a result, FSCS can pay compensation of up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm — a limit that has stayed the same for some years. That figure is separate from deposit protection, which covers money held in a bank, building society or credit union account rather than money invested or advised upon, and which was increased to £120,000 per eligible person, per firm from December 2025. The two schemes and limits are easy to conflate, so it is worth checking which one is actually relevant to your situation rather than assuming a single number covers everything.
The FCA also maintains a Warning List, a separate register of firms and individuals it has been told are operating without the correct authorisation, or are running scams outright. One pattern worth knowing about specifically is the "clone firm" — where a scammer uses the name, and sometimes the genuine reference number, of a real authorised firm, but gives out their own phone number, email address or website instead of the real firm's. This is exactly why it is worth cross-checking any contact details you have been given against the official ones listed on the firm's actual register entry, rather than just confirming that a firm of that name exists.
In practice, the check takes a few minutes. Search the register for the firm and the individual, confirm the status shown is currently authorised rather than only formerly authorised, check that the permissions cover the type of advice you actually need, note down the reference number for your own records, and confirm the individual you are dealing with is listed as working for that specific firm. If anything looks inconsistent, or you are contacted out of the blue about your pension or investments, the FCA's own consumer helpline can help you check further, and Action Fraud is the right place to report anything that looks like an active scam.
This article is general information, not financial advice, and it is not a recommendation of any specific firm, adviser or product. Whichever adviser, mortgage broker or insurance broker you are considering, it is worth checking their current status on the Financial Services Register yourself before any conversation about your money goes further. Our directory lists UK financial advisers, mortgage brokers and insurance brokers by area, but the Financial Services Register is always the definitive place to confirm authorisation.
Frequently asked questions
It is the Financial Conduct Authority's free, public record of every firm and individual currently or previously authorised to carry out regulated financial activities in the UK. You can search it at register.fca.org.uk by firm name, adviser name, or reference number.
For money invested or advised upon through an authorised firm, FSCS can pay compensation of up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm. This is a different scheme, with a different limit, from deposit protection for money held in bank accounts, which was raised to £120,000 from December 2025.
A clone firm is a scam that uses a genuine authorised firm's name, and sometimes its real reference number, while giving out different contact details of its own. Cross-checking any phone number, email or website you have been given against the details actually shown on that firm's Financial Services Register entry is the most reliable way to catch this.
You generally lose access to the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong, and to FSCS compensation if the firm later fails. Checking authorisation on the Financial Services Register before you proceed is the simplest way to avoid this situation.