What is an introducer? The rules for referring clients, explained

An introducer connects a client to a financial services firm and may be paid for it — without giving advice, which stays firmly with the regulated adviser. An introducer appointed representative (IAR) is a formalised version: appointed by a regulated principal, listed on the FCA Register, permitted to make introductions and distribute the principal's approved materials, and supervised for exactly those activities.

Then there's the genuinely unregulated territory: introductions for will-writing and estate planning, which aren't regulated financial services activities at all, and follow ordinary commercial rules plus the professional-ethics disclosure duties covered elsewhere on this site.

The permitted zone: identify that a client has a need, obtain their consent, pass their details to the adviser or firm, and be paid for the introduction. The forbidden zone: recommending specific products, handling client money, or presenting yourself as the adviser. The grey zone people worry about — 'can I even say the word pension?' — is mostly imaginary: describing a category of need is not advice. Recommending what to do about it is.

Every rule above has an evidential twin: consent recorded, disclosure documented, introductions logged, commissions reconciled. Regulators judge arrangements by their records, and so do the principals who take on introducers. A referral network that's serious about longevity builds the paperwork in from the first introduction — because the alternative isn't less paperwork, it's the same paperwork demanded retrospectively, at speed, by someone unhappy.