People under financial strain tend to go looking for more credit before they look for advice. Debt-review data, search behaviour, and two-pot withdrawals suggest where that pathway runs, and where the industry could meet people sooner.
The financial advice gap is usually described as a question of access: how many South Africans have an adviser, and how to reach the rest. Momentum’s 2025 Financial Advice Research, conducted with Unisa’s Bureau of Market Research, found that only 9% of households use a professional or certified financial adviser. Seventy-seven percent rely on their own knowledge (Link between size of household investments and financial advice).
I want to look at a narrower question that matters to advisers: when a…