How we make money
Independence claims are cheap. Here's the actual business model — what funds the site, and the revenue we turn down to keep the education clean.
What funds the site
- Display advertising. Standard, clearly distinguishable ad placements served by advertising networks. Advertisers buy space, not influence: they don't see content before publication and can't request coverage. Any ad that is itself a financial promotion of a regulated product is the advertiser's own communication, subject to the advertiser's own regulatory approval obligations — never ours, and never endorsed by us.
- Brand sponsorship. Sponsors may support the newsletter or a calculator page at brand level ("supported by X"), always labelled. Sponsors get audience visibility — never editorial input, never product placement in our content, and never our endorsement of any product.
- Calculator licensing. We license white-label versions of our calculators to businesses, including FCA-authorised advice firms, for use on their own websites. This is a software service: how licensees use the tools within their own regulated environment is their responsibility, and no licensing relationship affects what we publish.
- Disclosed adviser introductions (planned). We are exploring offering, at your request only, an introduction to a single named FCA-authorised advice firm — operating as that firm's appointed introducer, on the FCA Register, with our fee disclosed in plain sight on the page where the introduction happens. This is the opposite of the lead-gen model: one accountable partner you can verify, instead of your details auctioned to whoever pays. If and when this launches, it will be announced here and on our important information page first.
What we refuse
- Anonymous lead selling. We never sell your details to networks of advisers or providers, and never run hidden "get matched" auctions — the model where "free help" is funded by selling you. Any introduction we ever facilitate will be to one named partner, at your explicit request, with the relationship and our fee disclosed before you decide.
- Affiliate commissions on regulated products. No paid links to platforms, pensions, mortgages or insurers, and no commission when you open anything.
- Paid rankings and "best buy" placements. Nobody can pay to appear in our editorial content, because our editorial content doesn't feature firms or products. A disclosed introduction page is not editorial and never will be dressed as it.
- Sponsored editorial. No advertorial dressed as guidance.
Why so strict?
Two reasons. The first is trust — the entire value of this site rests on the education being unbought. The second is regulatory: promoting regulated products and funnelling consumers to firms for payment is territory the FCA polices, and is tightening. So we either stay out of an activity entirely, or do it inside the rules — as a registered, disclosed appointed introducer of an authorised firm — never in the grey space between.
Conflicts policy
If a future commercial relationship could even appear to touch editorial content, we'll either decline it or disclose it on the affected page in plain sight. If you ever spot something that looks like a conflict, tell us: [email protected].