The review will focus on firms that advise, manage or administer investments, including platforms, advisers and wealth managers. The regulator will examine the entire customer journey, from the moment a firm is informed of a bereavement through to the settlement or transfer of investments, assessing communications, support for vulnerable customers, service standards and the handling of fees on bereaved accounts.

Kate Tuckley, head of department, Consumer Investments at the FCA, said: “When someone loses a loved one, the last thing they need is confusing letters, delays and poor service from their financial provider. 

“We want firms to design bereavement processes with people, not paperwork, at their centre. These processes are a real test of a firm’s culture and key to consumer trust.”

The review follows similar FCA work in retail banking and insurance, which found bereaved customers regularly encountered unclear processes, repeated information requests and avoidable delays. The regulator added that “good practice existed but it wasn’t consistent”.

The concerns echo wider findings from the FCA’s vulnerability research, published in May 2024, which examined outcomes for consumers in vulnerable circumstances across the financial services sector.

Bereavement is recognised as a negative life event that can trigger or compound vulnerability, particularly when it interacts with other characteristics such as poor health or low financial resilience.

The research found that consumers experiencing multiple drivers of vulnerability were significantly more likely to report poor outcomes, with 47% of those combining health conditions, negative life events and low resilience reporting they had been turned down for products they considered suitable, compared with just 11% of those not in vulnerable circumstances.

The vulnerability research also identified that standardised, impersonal processes often fail customers at moments of crisis. Consumers described being passed between departments, asked to repeat sensitive information, and encountering staff who appeared to be reading from scripts. By contrast, where firms responded flexibly with tailored, more personal support, outcomes improved markedly and consumer trust was strengthened.

Only around four in ten consumers with characteristics of vulnerability had disclosed their circumstances to a provider, with embarrassment, fear of receiving a worse deal, and lack of awareness of available support cited as key barriers.

From May 2026, the FCA will contact selected firms as part of the review, with findings due to be published later this year, identifying both good practice and areas requiring improvement.

The work is a priority under the regulator’s Consumer Investments Regulatory Priorities and forms part of its broader Consumer Duty programme, which requires firms to consider the needs, characteristics and objectives of their customers, including those in vulnerable circumstances, at every stage of the customer journey.