Choosing an ethical independent financial adviser

Finding someone who will respect your ethical principles and take them seriously is easier than it used to be.

Financial advisers tend to operate as small businesses, partnerships, or sole traders, and there are around 4,500 in the UK. Financial advisers used to focus on a specific region, but nowadays many will advise nationally.

In recent years, money has been pouring into ‘ethical’ funds, many of which have been performing better than traditional funds for a while now. This means that even previously cynical advisers are showing more respect for an ethical approach, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one that didn’t mention ‘sustainability’ or a similar buzzword at least once in their promotional materials. In a way though, this can make them harder to sift through, and so we highlight a few below that we know are not new to the game.

How much can an ethical adviser cost?

Approaching a firm for bespoke advice is rarely recommended for people with less than £100,000 to invest (which is the majority of UK citizens). Indeed, one 2019 survey has suggested that only 16% of financial advice firms would take on a client with less than £100,000.

However, they can be really useful for complex long-term arrangements like pensions, lump sum inheritances, and mortgages, and we suggest consulting them occasionally in some of our money guides.

Some firms may offer an hourly rate for a consultation, which can start at around £250.

It's always good to choose an adviser whose website is clear and upfront about what the charges will be. The section on ethical investment platforms, below, explores more options for people with less money.

Finding an ethical financial adviser

In February 2025, The Path became the first financial adviser to become accredited under our expanded Best Buy label scheme, which now includes products that aren't covered in our regular shopping guides. 

See below for more about how we rated The Path.

Other ethical options

Other pioneers who focus exclusively on ethical investment advice, and who we've known at Ethical Consumer for many years, include:

• Castlefield Advisory Partners, Manchester, London, and Salisbury. Tel: 0330 088 4890.
• EQ Investors, London. Tel: 0207 488 7110.
• The Ethical Investment Co-operative, Richmond. Tel: 01748 889440.
• The Ethical Investors Group, Cheltenham. Tel: 01242 539848.
• Good Green Money, Blackburn. Tel: 01254 247913.
• Investing Ethically, Norwich. Tel: 01603 309020.

Simply Ethical, Middlesex (Tel: 0208 945 3786), offers both socially responsible investment advice and Sharia-compliant arrangements.

Even with ethical advisers, you do need to find someone with whom you are comfortable personally, and it may be worth trying more than one. As one of our subscribers wrote to us:

“I had some money I wanted to invest and so I started looking for a financial adviser. I found quite a few who claimed to know about green and ethical investments, but I wasn’t impressed by any of them. They explained that I could cut out certain companies, but they didn’t really seem to understand what I wanted to do. It took a while to find someone on my wavelength, but when I did, it made such a difference.”

Ethical Investment Platforms and Robo-Advisers

For those with smaller sums to invest or save, it is possible to start investing online with as little as £25 a month, though the 'advice' will come from a series of questions on a website or app (a robo-adviser), rather than a relationship with a real human being.

We rank some ethical investment platforms in our guide to Ethical Stocks & Shares ISAs.

The Big Exchange is a Best Buy platform that takes its ethical questions seriously.

It is also worth noting that some of the websites of the financial advisers discussed above enable logins to trading platforms too, so there is some overlap in what is available.

Find out more about ethical investing

If you're thinking about ethical investing and want to know more before speaking to someone, a good place to start is our introduction to ethical investing.