How IT consultants can offer financial-advice referrals without becoming regulated

Nobody sees a business quite like the person who runs its systems. You have watched the invoicing, sat in on the planning calls, migrated the finance stack. So when the managing director says, over the third coffee of a server migration, 'honestly, I want out in three years' — you are not eavesdropping. You are the audience.

The follow-up questions come fast. What should I do with the £300,000 sitting in the company? Is my pension even worth anything? Should I be taking dividends or salary?

You did not train for any of this. Good. That clarity is useful. The consultants who get into trouble are the ones who half-know things and share them confidently. The ones who build trust say four words: 'I know someone regulated.'

IT consultancy has no regulator, which lulls people into thinking financial chat is just chat. It is not. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 applies to everyone: advising on investments or pensions without FCA authorisation is a criminal offence regardless of your job title, your intentions or how casual the conversation felt.

The safe harbour is equally universal. Making an introduction to an authorised firm — without recommending products, without steering, without opinions dressed as observations — is not a regulated activity. 'Talk to a regulated financial adviser; I can introduce you to one I have vetted' keeps you entirely on the right side of the line.

Vetting takes two minutes: search the adviser's name and firm on the FCA Register. Free, public, definitive. Do it before every first referral, not once per lifetime.

Think about what your best clients actually buy from you. Not code. Not uptime. Judgement about problems outside their expertise. A well-made financial introduction is the same product in a different wrapper — and it costs you almost nothing to supply.

Make the handover warm: a three-way email naming both parties and the topic, sent within 48 hours of the conversation while the intent is still alive. Introductions left for a fortnight mostly die.

Then get the commercial side straight. Introducer fees are legitimate if disclosed — tell the client in writing that you may be paid, roughly how much, and that they can use anyone they wish. Referral networks like SmartPeer track each introduction and produce the disclosure letter automatically, so the compliance layer runs itself. One conversation, properly routed, can be worth more than a week of billable time. Quietly. Repeatedly.