IFA Salary 2026/27: Employed vs Self-Employed Practice
ONS does not measure IFAs on their own. They sit in finance and investment analysts and advisers (SOC 2020 2422), whose full-time median was £50,330 in ASHE 2025, with a quarter of the group below £36,872 and a quarter above £70,665. ASHE counts employees only, so self-employed advisers running their own practice are not in these figures.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £50,330
- ASHE 2025, 25th to 75th percentile
- £36,872–£70,665
- Take-home at median
- £39,749 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 29% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 50th percentile (£39,039) and the 75th percentile (£54,009) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences independent financial adviser pay
The group is broad: it covers investment analysts as well as advisers, so its median describes both. The £50,330 median is just above the £50,270 higher-rate threshold with no pension contribution, and £70,665 at the upper quartile puts £20,395 into the 40% band.
How investment and pension advice is paid for is set by FCA rules, not by the firm alone. Since the Retail Distribution Review took effect on 31 December 2012, COBS 6.1A.4R requires a firm making personal recommendations to retail clients on retail investment products, pension transfers, conversions and opt-outs, or P2P agreements (the scope set by COBS 6.1A.1R) to be paid for that advice only by adviser charges, and bars it from soliciting or accepting other commission. Advice on pure protection or mortgages is not in that list. Commission on investment advice survives only where the recommendation was made on or before 30 December 2012 and the other conditions of the exception in COBS 6.1A.4AR are met.
A self-employed adviser running a limited company pays Corporation Tax on profit, 19% up to £50,000 and 25% from £250,000 with marginal relief between, then dividend tax on what is drawn: 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% above a £500 allowance. Whether that beats sole-trader Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance depends on the profit and how much is drawn.
Career progression
- Bottom decile of the group: £28,442.
- Lower quartile: £36,872.
- Median: £50,330.
- Upper quartile: £70,665 - ONS suppressed the 90th percentile as not robust.
- Self-employed advisers and practice owners: not measured by ASHE, which covers employees only.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for an employed IFA?
- On the £50,330 group median with an 8% salary-sacrifice workplace pension and no student loan, take-home is about £36,858 a year; the pension takes taxable pay below the £50,270 threshold, so none of it is taxed at 40%. At the £70,665 upper quartile on the same basis it is about £48,264, with £14,742 taxed at 40%.
- Should an IFA go limited company?
- It depends on profit and on how much is drawn out. A company pays Corporation Tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000, rising to 25% from £250,000, and dividends drawn from what is left are taxed at 10.75% in the basic rate band and 35.75% in the higher rate band. A sole trader pays Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on the whole profit instead. Run both on your own figures before deciding.
- Are FCA fees and indemnity insurance tax-deductible?
- For a self-employed adviser, costs incurred wholly and exclusively for the business, such as FCA fees, the Financial Ombudsman Service levy, professional indemnity insurance and software, are deducted from income before profit is taxed. They reduce taxable profit rather than the tax rate, so their value is the adviser's marginal rate of Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on each pound spent.