FCA Consultation on Simplified Pensions and Investment Advice Rules Closes as Pensions UK Warns Regulatory Gaps Will Deter Firm Behaviour Change

The FCA's (Financial Conduct Authority) consultation on simplifying pensions and investment advice rules closed on 22 May 2026, with Pensions UK — the industry body representing workplace pension schemes — filing a critical response that flags significant gaps in the proposals. The FCA's consultation, titled *Simplifying the Pensions & Investment Advice Rules*, aimed to make it easier for regulated firms to deliver simplified forms of personalised financial advice to retail consumers. The consultation forms part of the regulator's broader push to address what policymakers have termed the UK's 'advice gap' — the disparity between the large number of consumers who need financial guidance and the smaller number who can access or afford full regulated advice. Pensions UK's response acknowledged that the FCA's direction of travel has the potential to improve consumer access to advice by better reflecting how people actually engage with financial services in practice. However, the industry body warned that firms are unlikely to change their behaviour — and therefore unlikely to offer more simplified advice — without greater certainty on how two key concepts will be applied in practice: 'proportionality' and 'sufficient information'. Without clear worked examples from the FCA, compliance officers at financial services firms will default to the conservative interpretation, leaving the advice gap effectively unchanged. Pensions UK also called on the regulator to revisit the broader boundary between regulated advice and so-called targeted support — a new category of consumer assistance the FCA has proposed — to ensure that the full spectrum of available support works as a coherent system rather than creating fresh boundary uncertainty.