“Do you know a good financial adviser?” — the compliant answer

UK financial services law draws a sharp boundary around advice — recommending a specific product, provider or course of action on investments, pensions and the like. That's regulated territory, and accountants without the permissions stay out of it.

But introducing — 'you should speak to a financial adviser; I can put you in touch with one' — sits outside the perimeter, provided it's done as an introduction rather than a steer towards a particular product. You're connecting a person to a regulated professional, not advising them what to buy. The law expects the adviser to do the advising. So should you.

The pattern is need-based, not product-based:

• 'That's an adviser question — I can introduce you to someone regulated.'
• 'You could do with proper pension advice. Want me to connect you?'
• Not: 'you should move that into a SIPP' — that's advice, and it isn't yours to give.

General, need-level, adviser-forward. If you catch yourself naming products, stop.

The informal version of this — scribbling a friend's number on a compliment slip — has quiet problems: no consent, no record, no idea what happened next, and no answer if anyone ever asks 'why that firm?'. A structured referral fixes all four: the client consents, the introduction is evidenced, the outcome is tracked, and the vetting is documented. Same friendly gesture. Actual audit trail.