What is the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) and how do SOLLA advisers work?
The aim of SOLLA is to ensure that people are better informed about the financial issues of later life and can find a fully accredited adviser quickly and easily. Trust and confidence in the advice clients receive is important and SOLLA, as a not-for-profit organisation, does not make any money from advice given or products sold by the advisers registered with them. The advisers who are SOLLA members do charge for their services, although most provide an initial consultation with no charge and without obligation.
26th February 2025
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Chris Tweedie See profile -
Andrew Page See profile
All financial advisers listed on the SOLLA website directory have voluntarily undertaken a very robust assessment that underpins their Later Life Adviser Accreditation qualification.
SOLLA meets all of the advisers registered with them through their face-to-face assessment and they need to relicense annually, during which SOLLA undertakes further checks. SOLLA advisers are required to go through the full accreditation process every five years to ensure they have sufficient knowledge and experience to provide high standards of later life advice on an ongoing basis.
There are two types of financial advisers accredited with SOLLA, independent and restricted:
- Independent financial adviserscan offer advice on the entire range of financial products and providers and are not restricted or limited in which products or providers they recommend.
- Restricted financial adviserscan only recommend certain products or providers. This may be because they only work with certain providers and therefore cannot consider all products, or it might be that they have decided to focus or specialise in a particular financial area, and therefore can recommend anything from within that area, but don’t work across all the market, and therefore cannot describe themselves as independent.
Areas of advice
An accredited financial adviser will be able to help clients in all areas of later life financial matters, including retirement planning, care funding (both care homes and care in the client’s own home), equity release and other property options, saving and investment planning, tax matters, and estate and wealth planning. They will be able to give clients advice about specific options available to them and give recommendations based on the client’s personal circumstances, and what products best suit their needs.
Cost
Most will offer an initial consultation at no cost and without obligation. Financial advisers, like all professionals, charge for their time. They will let clients have their terms of business and explain what services they will be offering. Clients will be able to make sure they understand what is being offered and what it will cost before they proceed.
Complaints
All advisers listed in the website directory have complaint procedures in place as part of their regulatory requirements and are all regulated by the financial watchdog Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Code of Practice
As part of their commitment to being a later life adviser they must adhere to the SOLLA Code of Practice and disclose any upheld complaints when they join the society, and when they relicense each year.
The link below to the SOLLA website allows you to understand more about SOLLA and accredited later life advice.
To speak to one of our SOLLA accredited later life planners, please do get in touch by clicking here…
