RegData Day: The Bit Clients Never See

Behind the Scenes

Most clients will quite rightly never see this side of the business, but I thought it worth sharing a small insight into what sits underneath a modern regulated advisory firm.

Over the last few days we have been preparing and submitting a significant amount of regulatory data to the FCA, covering everything from:

Balance sheet reporting
Profit and loss submissions
Regulatory capital adequacy
Adviser charging disclosures
Professional indemnity insurance certification
Training and competence returns
Complaints reporting
Consumer credit reporting
Economic crime levy submissions
Supplementary product sales data

This snapshot shows today’s confirmed submissions…

The Honest View

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the importance of regulation, oversight and consumer protection. Advice should be properly evidenced. Clients should be protected. Standards matter.

But there are moments where you do sit back and wonder whether the balance has tipped too far into duplication and bureaucracy.

The FCA already receives enormous amounts of data through investment platforms, filed company accounts, levy calculations and HMRC reporting systems, yet we still spend significant time manually repackaging overlapping information back into multiple reporting templates and regulatory schedules.

For smaller independent firms especially, it does feel like we are running a miniature listed institution rather than a relationship-led advisory business.

What This Profession Is Actually About

When you strip all the layers away, the valuable part of this noble profession remains remarkably simple.

It is still fundamentally the same as it was when I joined Barclays in 1989. Sitting across the table from another human being and helping them make sensible long-term decisions around their money, family, retirement and future.

That part has not changed. Nor, in my view, should it ever.

The irony is that most clients probably assume advisers spend all of their time doing just that, or researching investments, or dare I say it, watching markets.

In reality, an extraordinary amount of time inside modern regulated firms is spent evidencing, documenting, reporting, monitoring, checking, certifying and reconfirming.

That is simply the world we now operate in.

Filing Day Is Behind Us

Normal service can resume.

If you would like to understand more about what goes into running a properly regulated, FCA authorised advisory firm, or simply want to talk through your own financial position, we are always happy to have that conversation.

Originally Penned on 14th May 2026

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RegData Day: The Bit Clients Never See

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