Guides — Financial advisers
FCA rules on social media for financial advisers, in plain English.
Every post that invites someone towards a financial product can be a financial promotion — with everything that implies. What FG24/1 actually requires, and the safe ground most firms underuse.
7-minute read — for advice firm principals and compliance officers who suspect the marketing rules apply to Instagram, and are right.
The medium is irrelevant. The message is everything.
The FCA's position, restated plainly in its social-media guidance FG24/1 (March 2024), is medium-neutral: a communication that invites or induces someone towards investment activity is a financial promotion, whether it arrives as a letter, a seminar or a 15-second reel. The character limit of a platform has never been accepted as an excuse for an unbalanced message — if a promotion cannot be made compliant within the format, the FCA's view is that the format is wrong for the promotion.
What "fair, clear and not misleading" means at feed speed
- ·Standalone compliance. Each post must stand on its own. A risk warning in your bio, a linked page, or "see part 2" does not rescue an unbalanced post — many readers only ever see the one frame.
- ·Balance with real prominence. Benefits and risks presented so a reader actually registers both. Risk warnings truncated behind "…see more" are a named failure in FG24/1.
- ·No implied outcomes. Returns language, cherry-picked charts and "clients typically save…" claims draw exactly the scrutiny you would expect.
- ·The Consumer Duty lens. Beyond technical compliance, the question is whether the communication supports good client outcomes and comprehension — retail communications are judged by what a real reader takes away.
The safe, valuable middle ground
None of this means advisers should go silent — the firms winning on social media publish constantly, and compliantly, because they understand where the safe ground is. Education, perspective and character are not promotions. Explaining how pension allowances work, what a market fall means historically, who the team are, what a first meeting feels like — this content builds the trust that actually wins clients, and it never needed a risk warning. The craft is knowing exactly where the line sits, and having an approval flow fast enough that compliance never becomes the reason the feed went quiet.
Influencers, introducers, and other people's posts
FG24/1 gives particular attention to promotions made on a firm's behalf: affiliates, introducers and influencers. If it promotes your service, you carry responsibility for its compliance — "the influencer wrote it" is not a defence. Any arrangement where a third party posts about your firm needs the same approval discipline as your own channels.
What we do about all this
Sterling manages social media for financial advisers on a simple discipline: educational and character content that never strays into promotion territory without being treated as one; every post approved by you before it publishes; and a complete record of what went out, when, and who signed it off. The result is a feed that compounds trust for years — with an audit trail your compliance officer will actually enjoy.
Common questions
Is a LinkedIn post really a financial promotion?
It can be. The test is the content, not the channel: if a communication is an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity, it is a financial promotion — whether it is a brochure, a tweet or a 30-second reel. Purely educational content with no invitation towards a product or service sits outside the definition, but the line is narrower than most firms assume.
What did FCA guidance FG24/1 change?
FG24/1 (March 2024) confirmed that the financial promotion rules apply in full on social media: risk warnings must be genuinely prominent rather than truncated or buried, each communication must be fair, clear and not misleading on a standalone basis, and firms are responsible for promotions made by affiliates and influencers on their behalf.
Can our advisers post from personal accounts?
Yes — and for most firms, personal profiles outperform the firm page. But a personal account discussing the firm's services is still capable of being a financial promotion, so the same approval and record-keeping disciplines apply. The practical answer is a clear policy plus a fast approval route, not a ban.
Do we need to keep records of social posts?
Yes. Firms should be able to show what was published, when, and who approved it — including edits and deletions. A feed run without an approval trail is the compliance equivalent of unfiled paperwork.
This guide is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. Last reviewed August 2026.