Ask My Adviser now checks targeted support suggestions

Uncategorized 4 Minutes

Nov 9, 2026 · @Steve Conley

Better questions. Clearer answers. Decisions you own.

If a firm has sent you a ready-made suggestion about your pension or your savings, Ask My Adviser can now help you check it before you act.

We have added a Targeted Support Check to ask-my-adviser.app. It is free, needs no sign-up, and works from the letter, email or message you received.

We built it in response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s responses to questions from its 2026 Annual Public Meeting, published on Friday 6 November. In them, the FCA described targeted support as a way to make support “readily accessible to many more consumers”. It also confirmed that it had recently authorised its first targeted support provider to use an AI chatbot, helping customers with excess cash savings to invest.

Targeted support is arriving. More people will receive these suggestions, and more of them will come from automated channels. People deserve a simple, fair way to understand one before they decide.

What targeted support is

Targeted support is a new, regulated form of help that sits between guidance and personal advice.

  • Guidance gives general information and leaves the decision to you.
  • Personal advice recommends what you should do, based on a full assessment of your circumstances.
  • Targeted support gives a ready-made suggestion designed for a group of people who share a need and certain characteristics — for example, people of a certain age with cash savings above a set level.

The FCA’s rules require firms to define each group carefully, including the circumstances that would exclude someone. Firms must check that you fit the group, and must be satisfied that the suggestion is suitable for people in it. They must not give you the suggestion if they know, or ought reasonably to know, something that makes it unsuitable for you.

That is a real safeguard. But the suggestion is still designed for a group, not for you. Whether it fits your life depends on things the group may not capture.

What we have added

The Targeted Support Check works through seven questions. Together they ask whether the suggestion fits you, who stands behind it, and what happens if it goes wrong.

  1. Which characteristics placed me in this group?
  2. Which circumstances were excluded?
  3. Who designed the suggestion?
  4. What commercial interest does the provider have?
  5. What alternatives were considered?
  6. What would make this suggestion unsuitable for me?
  7. What protection and redress apply?

For each question, the check shows:

  • what your documents say, with the page and a short quote, so you can see the evidence for yourself
  • whether the answer is shown, partly shown or not shown in what you supplied
  • one clear, neutral question you can put to the firm

It also lists anything in your documents or notes that the group may not reflect — a house purchase coming up, a health concern, a change in work — and the signs that personal advice may be worth considering instead. It gives the strongest fair case for the suggestion, alongside its limits.

The findings flow into Ask My Adviser’s one-page meeting agenda, in your own words, ready to send ahead of a conversation with the firm.

Why we built it

Targeted support could help millions of people who would never pay for advice. We welcome that. Too many people leave money in cash for years, or make pension decisions alone, because help has felt out of reach.

But a suggestion designed for a group asks you to trust three things you usually cannot see:

  • The fit. You were placed in a group because of a few characteristics. The rest of your life — your plans, your family, your health, what “enough” means to you — may not have been part of the picture.
  • The interests. The firm making the suggestion may also provide the product, the fund or the platform. That is not wrong in itself, but you are entitled to know it.
  • The protection. If the suggestion turns out badly, you need to know where you can complain and what protection applies. The answer is not always obvious, and the sources we checked did not settle every point.

At the Academy of Life Planning we plan life before money. A suggestion is only as good as its fit with the life it is meant to serve. The Targeted Support Check helps you see that fit clearly — and helps you ask about it, calmly and in writing, before you commit.

What it is — and isn’t

The check is designed to be fair to the firm as well as to you.

  • It judges targeted support by its own rules, not as if it were personal advice. A ready-made suggestion is not meant to cover every part of your life.
  • It reviews the evidence you supply. It does not audit the firm. If something is missing from your documents, that does not mean the firm failed to consider it — it may simply not be in what you have.
  • It separates a possible conflict of interest from evidence of harm. A firm offering its own fund is something to understand, not proof of a bad suggestion.
  • It is education, not advice. It never tells you to accept, refuse, move or cancel anything. The decision stays with you.

Your documents are read in your own browser, and common identifiers such as account numbers and National Insurance numbers are masked before anything is sent. Masking is a precaution, so please check the text and remove anything you would rather not share. AI can make mistakes: check important figures before you act.

Try it

Go to ask-my-adviser.app, add the suggestion you received and anything that came with it, and choose Targeted Support Check. It takes a few minutes and ends with questions you can send to the firm.

Bring what you have: the letter, email or chat transcript; any key facts or product documents; and a few lines about what matters to you. The more of your own life you add, the clearer the fit becomes.

And if the questions leave you wanting a conversation with someone who will look at your whole life, a Total Wealth Planner™ can help.

Better questions lead to clearer answers. Clearer answers lead to decisions you own.

Sources and deeper reading

Ask My Adviser is an education tool from the Academy of Life Planning. It does not provide financial advice.

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