Around 8.6 million people in the UK aged between 35 and 70 have £20,000 or more in investable assets but are not paying for advice, research from The Lang Cat has found.

Its 2026 Advice Gap study, sponsored by Saturn, showed that this unadvised cohort of the population held approximately £1.21trn in investable assets and a further £392bn in defined contribution (DC) pension wealth.

The study aimed to put a number on the ‘affluent advice gap’, identifying people with £20,000 or more in investable assets who are not being serviced by an advice proposition.

It argued that these people were not seeking advice when they should and could afford it.

The Lang Cat also identified a second group, larger by the number of people but smaller in terms of wealth, with around 15.4 million adults holding less than £20,000 in investable assets, totalling around £63.8bn excluding DC pension assets.

When unadvised adults were asked why they were not seeking regulated advice, 28% cited cost, while 25% believed they could look after their own money, up from 20% last year.

More than two thirds (68%) of those who had not paid for advice in the past two years said they were unlikely to do so, falling to 45% among those who earned over £70,000.

Meanwhile, 16% of adults in households earning more than £70,000 did not access advice but said they needed it, up from 14% last year.

Among advised adults, 96% said they found the advice they received helpful, an increase from 93% in 2025.

“For advice firms, the lang cat’s estimate of 8.6 million unadvised adults holding £1.61trn points to a substantial opportunity to bring financial planning to more families,” said Saturn CEO, Amal Jolly.

“With 28% of those not accessing advice citing cost, making advice more affordable has to be part of the answer.

“AI operating systems can help firms reduce the cost and complexity of delivering advice, making it commercially viable to serve more people.

“They can also give advisers more time to understand each family and support them through the financial decisions that shape their lives.

“That’s what we’re building towards at Saturn: helping advisers become trusted partners across a family’s financial life, with technology enabling them to reach more people and provide better support.”

The Lang Cat CEO, Mark Polson, added: “Everyone in this industry agrees the advice gap is a problem, but the real issue is everyone means something slightly different by it.

“We wanted to put a number on the part of it that commercial businesses could do something about. These aren’t small numbers we’re talking about: 8.6 million people, £1.61trn between them, and no adviser within earshot.

“The finding that should make everybody sit up and pay attention is the 78% who are concerned that advice might be influenced by advisers earning commission. Advisers have not been able to take commission in 14 years.”

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