UK Financial News update
Stories of the week
1. Wiseones Has Launched – Go fill in the survey
The website is live. Go have a look around.
After months of writing, building, testing, and arguing about fonts, wiseones.co.uk is officially open for business. And by “business” we mean free, jargon-free financial education for anyone who wants to understand their money better.
The Tools
We’ve built calculators and comparison tools designed to answer the questions people actually ask. Not the questions the industry thinks you should ask. Real ones. Like “how much do I need to retire?” and “what’s the difference between investing in my ISA and my workplace pension?”
The Articles
Everything from pensions to protection, ISAs to investment bonds, shares to crypto. Written in plain English, with the occasional opinion where the industry deserves one. No jargon walls. No product pushing. Just clear, factual explanations of how money works.
The Survey
We genuinely want to know what you think. What’s useful? What’s missing? What’s confusing? What would you like us to cover next? There’s a short survey on the site and we’d really appreciate 2 minutes of your time filling it in. This isn’t a vanity exercise. The feedback shapes what we build next.
The Feedback
If the survey isn’t your thing, just tell us directly. Email, social media, carrier pigeon. We read everything. If something’s wrong, we want to know. If something’s good, we’d like to know that too (our egos are fragile and need feeding).
Wiseones exists because we believe financial education in the UK is broken. People are expected to make life-changing decisions about pensions, investments, and protection with almost no understanding of how any of it works. We’re trying to fix that, one article at a time.
Go explore. Poke around. Break things. And let us know what you think.
2. Gen Z Lag Behind Every Other Generation at Understanding Inflation
Only 36% of Gen Z understand that inflation reduces the value of their savings. That’s a problem.
New research from Plum (the smart money app) has found that Gen Z, those aged 18 to 29, are significantly behind the rest of the population when it comes to understanding what inflation actually does to their money.
The headline numbers from a UK nationally representative sample of 2,000 people, surveyed by Opinium in February 2026:
- 36% of Gen Z recognised that inflation reduces the value of savings over time
- 57% of all respondents understood this
- 71% of over-55s understood this
That means nearly two-thirds of young adults in the UK don’t understand the single most important concept in personal finance: that money sitting in cash gets less valuable over time.
The research also found:
- 30% of respondents said nothing would persuade them to invest instead of sticking with cash
- 33% believe a Cash ISA returns 4% or more per year (Plum notes it has historically been 1-3%)
- According to the Bank of England inflation calculator, £10,000 in cash in 2006 would be worth £5,733 in real terms today. That’s a 43% loss in purchasing power
Rajan Lakhani, head of money at Plum, said there is a “deepening crisis in financial literacy in the UK” and that too many people are relying on cash for long-term goals without realising how inflation erodes their savings or how accessible investing can be.
This research will make difficult reading for the Chancellor, who has made it her mission to transform Britain from a nation of savers to a nation of investors. Cutting the Cash ISA limit to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027 is one nudge. But if a third of the population wouldn’t invest under any circumstances, the challenge goes much deeper than allowance limits.
The Wiseones Take
This is exactly why we exist. If you’re reading this and you’re not sure what inflation does to your money, start with our Inflation article. Then look at our Cash ISA piece. Then set up a Stocks and Shares ISA. Your future self will be grateful.
3. FCA Ditches Annual Review Requirement for Ongoing Advice
Advisers will no longer be required to conduct annual suitability reviews. The industry is paying attention.
In a consultation paper published on 25 March, the Financial Conduct Authority announced it is looking to remove the mandatory annual review requirement for firms providing ongoing advice services.
Instead of annual reviews, firms would carry out periodic suitability assessments, with the frequency determined by the adviser based on client needs, circumstances, and the consumer duty.
The FCA’s reasoning:
- Varying consumer needs: For clients with simpler, low-risk investments, less frequent reviews might be a better fit
- Reduced consumer costs: A more flexible model could lower costs for consumers who may otherwise be priced out of ongoing services, while also freeing up adviser capacity
- Fair value under the consumer duty: Firms must already show evidence that their services provide fair value. This reduces the need for a prescriptive minimum review frequency
Why this matters
Ongoing advice charges have been under intense scrutiny. In February 2025, the FCA published findings from a multi-firm review looking at whether advisers were actually delivering the services clients paid for. In 83% of cases, suitability reviews were delivered. In 15% of cases, clients either declined or didn’t respond to an offer of a review. But in 2% of cases, no effort had been made to contact the client at all.
The fallout from ongoing advice scrutiny has been significant. St James’s Place set aside £426 million for potential client refunds to address ongoing advice issues. Quilter flagged it may also have to pay remedial costs after being among 20 large firms the regulator wrote to.
The warning
The FCA was clear that removing the annual requirement doesn’t mean firms can charge the same and deliver less. The regulator said it would monitor implementation closely through regulatory returns, complaints data, multi-firm reviews, and potentially consumer research.
The FCA added that where firms don’t comply with their obligations, it will take action.
It’s also seeking feedback on whether additional transparency requirements or guidance may be needed to prevent firms from offering less frequent reviews without reducing their pricing.
The Wiseones Take
This is a sensible direction. Not every client needs a full suitability review every 12 months. A 30-year-old with a workplace pension and an ISA in a global tracker fund probably doesn’t need an annual deep-dive. A 62-year-old approaching drawdown absolutely does.
The risk is obvious: some firms will use this as an excuse to pocket the same ongoing fee while doing less. The consumer duty should prevent that, but “should” and “will” are different words. If you’re paying 0.5-1% per year for ongoing advice, make sure you know exactly what you’re getting for it. And if the answer is “not much,” this might be the moment to have that conversation.
Rate watch
Bank of England Bank Rate: 3.75% ↔️(Held 18th March)
- UK mortgage rates (typical averages):
- 2-year fixed (75% LTV): ~5.25% 🔼 0.02%
- 5-year fixed (75% LTV): ~5.23% 🔼 0.00%
- UK GDP +1.3% December 2024 to December 2025
- UK Inflation Rates year on year
- UK CPI – 3.0% 🔽 0.4%
- UK CPIH – 3.2% (including housing costs) 🔽0.2%
- UK RPI – 3.8% 🔽0.4%
Upcoming Dates For Your Diary
April 2026
- 6 April – FCA Targeted Support Regime launches, allowing firms to provide tailored investment/pension guidance without crossing into full personalised advice
- 6 April – New Financial year with lots of changes. Check back on Monday for an up to date list
- 30 April – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
May/June 2026
- 18 June – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
July 2026
- 6 July – FCA commodity derivatives reforms go live
- 30 July – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
Wise Money Tips
(The tax year ends Sun 5 April 2026, but Good Friday is 3 April and Easter Monday is 6 April, so admin cut-offs land earlier.)
- Use your “use-it-or-lose-it” ISA allowance: up to £20,000 across ISAs in 2025/26 (frozen until April 2031). Don’t forget JISA £9,000 and LISA £4,000 (also frozen to April 2031).
- Dividend tax is rising from 6 April 2026: ordinary rate 8.75% → 10.75% and upper rate 33.75% → 35.75% (additional stays 39.35%). If you hold income shares outside wrappers, consider whether ISA/pension sheltering is worth it.
- Top up pensions before year-end (and check carry-forward): the annual allowance is £60,000 for 2025/26 (tapering can apply for higher earners).
- VCT timing matters this year: from 6 April 2026, VCT income tax relief drops to 20% (from 30%). VCT relief can’t be carried back, so if you want 2025/26 relief, the subscription needs to be in before year-end (practically by 2 April).
- EIS/SEIS investors: unlike VCT, EIS/SEIS relief can usually be carried back to the previous tax year (useful if your tax bill is lumpy).
- Use key “small but real” allowances: Personal Savings Allowance (£1,000/£500/£0 depending on band), Marriage Allowance transfer, and the £3,000 annual IHT gifting exemption (resets each tax year).
- State Pension uplift from 6 April 2026: full new State Pension rises £230.25 → £241.30/week; basic State Pension £176.45 → £184.90/week
- Quick check: NI record (especially age 50+): a top-up year can materially improve your State Pension outcome, it is worth checking your forecast and gaps before you start making irreversible year-end decisions