FinStandard.org

Building a real standard of trust in financial advice

FinStandard is not a marketing label, a lead-generator, or another ranking website.
It is an initiative to define, test and operationalise a measurable standard of trust in retail financial advice — starting in local markets, with global ambitions.

We believe that financial advice markets do not suffer from a lack of regulation or logos. They suffer from a lack of clear, evidence-based standards of behaviour, visible to both clients and institutions.

FinStandard exists to change that.

The problem we are trying to solve

Financial advice is structurally fragile:

Clients cannot easily tell who is good.

Licensing, disclaimers and generic reviews do not show how a specific advisor behaves in specific types of cases.

Reputation is noisy and fragmented.

Signals are scattered across registries, internal bank systems, social media, NPS surveys, complaint logs and word-of-mouth.

Regulation is necessary, but not sufficient.

Compliance often degenerates into box-ticking. Good actors and bad actors can look almost identical on paper.

Quality is invisible at the point of choice.

When a client chooses an advisor, they rarely see structured information on: how the advisor works, what kind of cases they handle well, and how consistent their behaviour is over time.

The result: good professionals are under-rewarded; mediocre and harmful behaviour is under-penalised; and clients carry more risk than they realise.

What FinStandard is (and what it is not)

FinStandard IS:

FinStandard is NOT:

We are interested in standards and infrastructure, not in becoming another market intermediary.

Our core beliefs

Trust must be earned in behaviour, not in slogans.
A serious standard has to look at how advisors work day-to-day: how they diagnose, explain, document, follow up and respond under pressure.
Reputation must be tied to evidence.
Stars and generic reviews are not enough. We care about case-level evidence: type of situation → constraints → recommendation → outcome → client feedback.
Good advisors deserve a structural advantage.
Markets should systematically reward professionals who are transparent, disciplined and client-centred — not only those who shout the loudest.
Standards must be realistic, not utopian.
A usable standard accepts the constraints of real practice: commercial models, product shelves, regulation, time pressure. It raises the bar, but does not ignore reality.
Local first, global later.
Regulation and practice are local. We start by building usable standards in specific markets, and only then explore whether something generalized can emerge.

What we are building

The FinStandard project focuses on several building blocks:

Verification framework
A structured way to confirm identity, licensing, professional liability cover, and basic KYC/AML criteria.
Behavioural standard
A concise set of expectations around diagnosis, documentation, communication, conflict-of-interest handling and follow-up.
Evidence cards ("case evidence")
Short, de-identified case summaries that show how an advisor worked in specific, real situations – with client-confirmed feedback.
Reputation profiles
Not "marketing bios", but structured profiles combining verification status, case evidence and basic behavioural metrics (response times, follow-up discipline, etc.).
Integration options
Ways for networks, institutions and tools (CRM, compliance systems, marketplaces) to consume or contribute to the standard over time.

Who we want to work with

We are looking for partners who care more about substance than slogans:

Advisors and small teams
Professionals who want their way of working to be visible and who are willing to open their processes to structured scrutiny.
Broker networks and financial institutions
Organisations that see quality and reputation as strategic assets, not just as risks to be managed.
Regulators, professional bodies and ombuds services
Stakeholders interested in pragmatic standards that complement existing regimes, not compete with them.
Researchers and methodologists
People working in behavioural science, risk, compliance, data and reputation systems who want to test ideas in a live, but controlled environment.
Technology and infrastructure partners
CRM providers, compliance platforms and ecosystems that could benefit from a shared trust standard.

How collaboration can look

We are open to multiple forms of collaboration, including:

In every case, we prioritise clarity of roles, data protection and independence.

Our credibility depends on a simple rule: we are in the business of standards, not distribution.

A note on neutrality and independence

FinStandard:

Get in touch

If you build or lead a serious advisory practice or network, work in a financial institution with responsibility for partner quality, or research trust, risk and reputation in financial services, and you see value in a real, evidence-based standard of trust in financial advice, we would be interested in a conversation.

Contact us

Subject line: "FinStandard – collaboration inquiry"

Please include a short description of who you are, your role, and how you imagine potential collaboration.

We will respond with a concrete proposal — or an honest "not the right fit yet" if we think the timing or scope is wrong.