The FCA's 'Targeted Support' Regime for Pensions and Investments Went Live on April 6, 2026, Letting Firms Make Suggestions to Groups Without Full Advice

One of the biggest changes to how British consumers are helped with their pensions and investments took effect in April 2026. The Financial Conduct Authority's 'targeted support' regime, set out in policy statement PS25/22, allows firms to give suggestions to groups of customers who share characteristics, without making a personal recommendation to each one. The facts below come from the FCA's own policy statement page. We have not read the full rules in the policy statement, so we describe the regime at the level given on that page. Where we add general background, we say so.

Start with the timeline. The FCA opened a consultation, CP25/17, on June 30, 2025, which closed on August 29, 2025. It published near-final rules on December 11, 2025, and the FCA Board confirmed the rules as final on February 26, 2026. Firms could apply for a targeted support permission from March 2, 2026, and the regime went live on April 6, 2026. Earlier work shaped the policy: the page lists CP24/27 on pensions targeted support reforms and DP23/5, the discussion paper from the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, the joint review by the FCA and HM Treasury of where guidance ends and advice begins.

What is targeted support? The FCA describes it as a framework for the design, delivery and purpose of 'suggestions designed for groups of consumers with common characteristics'. It covers decisions about both pensions and retail investments. The idea is that a firm can look at a group of customers, such as people approaching retirement who hold a lot of cash, or members of a pension scheme who are drawing down their savings quickly, and send them a suggestion about what to consider. This sits between two existing categories. Generic guidance gives information but no suggestion. Regulated advice involves a personal recommendation based on an assessment of the individual's circumstances, which is more expensive for a firm to provide. As general background, not drawn from the page, a firm might suggest a group of customers who are drawing a pension too fast consider a lower withdrawal rate, or tell customers holding large cash balances to consider investing part of it.

Who can offer it? The FCA page lists pensions and investment firms, including fund and wealth managers, platforms and operators of self-invested personal pensions; pension trustees and trust-based schemes; banks and building societies; friendly and mutual societies; financial advice and investment firms; and trade and consultancy bodies. A firm must apply for a targeted support permission, and the FCA offered a pre-application support service, PASS, as well as pre-application meetings through its FCA Connect system. The page does not say how many firms have applied or been authorised since April, so we cannot say how widely the regime is being used.

How big is the gap that the FCA wants to fill? The page says the FCA estimates around 23 million consumers are underserved by the markets for advice and guidance. This is the FCA's own estimate. Earlier reporting on the regime cited other figures, such as the number of adults with large cash savings and the share who take regulated advice, but those are not on the policy statement page and we have not verified them, so we do not repeat them.

There are two practical pieces of the framework that matter for consumers. First, the Government plans secondary legislation so that workplace pension providers can send targeted support communications to members who have not opted out of direct marketing. In other words, the law on marketing may be changed so that messages about a member's pension are not blocked as marketing. Second, in December 2025 the FCA published joint statements with the Financial Ombudsman Service, on how the two bodies will handle future complaints about targeted support, and with the Information Commissioner's Office, on how firms can communicate with consumers under existing direct marketing rules. The statement with the Ombudsman matters because, if a suggestion turns out badly, customers need to know where they can complain.

Other documents on the page include Handbook Notice 138 and the Advice Guidance Boundary Review (Targeted Support) Instrument 2026, which contains the formal rules. As general background, the regime sits alongside the FCA's Consumer Duty, which requires firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, although the page does not describe how the two interact.

What should savers do? A suggestion from your pension provider or platform is not a personal recommendation, and it is not tailored to your whole financial situation. It is a pointer based on a characteristic you share with others, such as your age or the size of your pot. Before acting on it, consider whether your own circumstances, such as other pensions, debts, health and tax position, would change the answer, and consider whether you want regulated advice. Keep a record of what you were told and who told you. Providers, for their part, need to be careful that their groups are sensible and their messages clear.

Why does it matter more broadly? Large UK insurers and wealth groups are already treating targeted support as a growth area. Aviva, for example, listed the regime among the sources of opportunity in its October 16 Wealth briefing. Whether it closes the advice gap will depend on how many firms use it and how well the messages help people, which will not be clear for some time. This article is a summary of a regulator's policy statement and is not financial or legal advice.