Cash savings advice: why advisers should give cash more attention

Ask most advisers where a client's wealth sits and they will talk about pensions and investments. Ask the client, and the answer often includes a large sum in a current account or an old easy access saver that has not been looked at for years. Cash is easy to leave out of the conversation because it feels safe. That is exactly why it can quietly cost clients money.

This guide sets out why cash savings advice deserves more attention, what the FCA and its research say, and a practical process for producing a savings recommendation you can evidence.

The case for cash savings advice

Clients hold a lot of cash

The FCA's Financial Lives 2024 survey found "90% of adults had cash savings, but only 35% had investments", and "61% of adults with £10,000+ in investible assets held all or at least three-quarters of these assets in cash (58% in 2022)" (Financial Lives 2024).

AJ Bell, using Bank of England Bankstats, reported "almost £306 billion sitting in accounts paying no interest at all" (AJ Bell, September 2026).

Loyalty is not rewarded

The FCA's cash savings action plan found that nine large providers passed on 28% of base rate rises to easy access deposits between January 2022 and May 2023, against 51% for notice and fixed accounts. It asked firms to "prompt their customers in lower paying savings accounts or non-interest bearing accounts to consider alternatives" (FCA cash savings action plan).

In its September 2024 update, the FCA reported an average easy access rate of 2.11% in June 2024 and said "the largest firms continue to pay below average for easy access products" (FCA update, September 2024).

Rates keep moving

At the time of writing (October 2026), Bank Rate is 3.75%. It was last changed on 18 December 2025, down from 4.00%, and has been held at every decision since, most recently on 17 September 2026. The next decision is due on 5 November 2026 (Bank of England). Each change can move deposit rates, and a recommendation that was right six months ago may not be right today.

Why cash belongs in the advice relationship

Cash fits the Consumer Duty's cross-cutting obligations directly. PRIN 2A.2.14R says "A firm must enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives", and PRIN 2A.2.8R says "A firm must avoid causing foreseeable harm to retail customers" (PRIN 2A.2). A client with a large balance earning little or nothing is a visible gap in the overall plan.

Cash also matters to the rest of the advice. Emergency funds, short-term spending, money set aside for tax, and the cash buffer in retirement income planning all depend on where cash is held and how quickly it can be reached. Getting cash right supports the investment advice rather than competing with it.

What a good cash recommendation considers

The headline rate matters, but it is rarely the only thing that matters to the client.

FSCS protection deserves its own check. The limit is "up to £120,000 per eligible person, per bank, building society or credit union", and brands sharing a banking licence are treated as one bank (FSCS). Our guide to the FSCS limit of £120,000 covers this in detail, including temporary high balances.

How to evidence a savings recommendation

A cash recommendation should be as defensible as any other. A simple process:

1. Record the client and the purpose. Who, how much, what for, and over what period.
2. Capture priorities. Access, branch, digital comfort, bonus rates and FSCS protection, in the client's own terms.
3. Rule out what does not fit. Products the amount cannot fund, terms the client cannot accept, and anything that would take the client's total with one institution over the FSCS limit.
4. Compare the market on the day. Rates, terms and FSCS status change, so check them at the point of recommendation.
5. Rank against the client, not just the rate. Explain why the top product suits this client better than the alternatives.
6. Write it up and date it. A clear rationale, the FSCS position for each product, the date the market data is current to, and the adviser's signature.
7. Keep the comparison. Store the full comparison with the client file, so the reasoning can be reviewed later.

By our estimate, doing this by hand takes about three hours per recommendation. That time, and the risk that rates have changed before the report is sent, is why cash so often gets left out.

Platforms and recommendations do different jobs

Cash deposit platforms let clients open and hold accounts with many banks through one login, and several offer adviser portals. They are a practical way to put a recommendation into effect. They are a different job from the recommendation itself, which needs to show why a particular product suits a particular client. The two can work together.

Making cash advice practical at scale

Reckoner produces an evidenced savings recommendation in a short guided flow. You capture the client and the signing adviser, choose from 15 product categories across 239 FSCS-protected products from direct deposit-takers, and enter the amount, which rules out unfundable products and flags FSCS limits. A suitability questionnaire covering branch access, digital comfort, withdrawal needs, bonus rates and FSCS protection re-weights the ranking. Reckoner then checks rates, terms and FSCS status against the live market and builds a ranked recommendation with a clear rationale, exported as a nine-page branded client report, adviser-signed and dated, plus an Excel comparison. Every report carries the date its market data is current to, and a history keeps every comparison the firm has produced.

By our estimate, that takes the work from about three hours to about twenty minutes. Reckoner does not hold client money; the adviser makes the recommendation and the client opens the account. For more on how it works, see evidenced cash savings recommendations.

Frequently asked questions

Why should financial advisers give cash savings advice?

Because clients hold a lot of cash, easy access rates at the largest providers have tended to lag, and a large idle balance is a gap in the client's overall plan. The Consumer Duty asks firms to support clients to pursue their financial objectives.

What should a cash savings recommendation include?

The client's purpose and priorities, products ruled out and why, a market comparison on the day, a ranked shortlist with rationale, the FSCS position for each product, and the date the market data is current to.

How often should a client's cash be reviewed?

At least at each review, and whenever Bank Rate or the client's circumstances change. Rates move, bonuses end and balances grow, so a recommendation can date quickly.

See how Reckoner builds an evidenced cash recommendation, or book a twenty-minute demo on Microsoft Teams with Adam Booth, run live on a demo firm with nothing to prepare.