Compliance is a Constraint. It is Not a Handbrake.
I have spent 28 years working in UK broadcast television.
In that time, I have never once worked on a production where everything went exactly to plan. Budget constraints. Location constraints. Time constraints. Legal constraints. They are part of the job — not obstacles to the job.
Some of the most entertaining television ever made in this country was written with a lawyer in the room. Mock the Week. Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Have I Got News For You. Those topical panel shows did not become less funny because a compliance team was involved. The jokes still landed. The moments were still electric. The shows were still worth watching.
What the legal presence did was change the workflow, not the outcome. Scripts were checked before filming, not after. Risky lines were flagged early, not cut in the edit. The compliance process was baked in at the beginning — which meant the creative process could run without fear once the camera was rolling.
The same principle applies to IFAs and wealth managers who want to use video.
Compliance is not the enemy of good video. A bad workflow is.
The Mistake Most Firms Make
The most common complaint I hear from financial professionals about video is some version of this:
| “We can’t say anything interesting.” “It takes three weeks to get a 60-second clip approved.” “Our compliance officer just says no to everything.” |
In almost every case, this is not a compliance problem. It is a sequencing problem.
The firm films the video. The firm edits the video. The firm sends the video to compliance. Compliance flags the language. The firm has to reshoot or make ugly cuts. The workflow breaks down, and the video either gets shelved or goes out in a worse state than it should.
The fix is simple: move compliance to the start of the process, not the end.
Involve your compliance team when you are developing the idea and writing the script. Agree the language before a camera is turned on. By the time you are filming, the risk is already managed — and the creative process can be exactly what it should be.
What to Post: The Green Zone
Not all video content carries the same regulatory risk. The most practical way to think about it is in three categories.
| Red — Never publish without specialist advice
• Specific product recommendations (“You should buy this fund”) • Return forecasts or performance projections • Content that could be read as personalised financial advice
Amber — Proceed carefully, caveats required • Market commentary with opinion (“I believe rates will fall”) • References to specific investment vehicles or providers • Any content that implies a recommendation without stating one
Green — Your content sweet spot • Explaining how financial products or planning concepts work • Answering the questions your clients ask you most often • Behind-the-scenes process: how you work, what an initial meeting looks like • Team introductions, firm values, community involvement • Myth-busting content: common misconceptions about pensions, ISAs, inheritance tax • Market context: what is happening and why, without saying what clients should do |
Your video strategy should live 90% in the Green Zone. Education builds authority, generates trust, and does not trigger regulatory concerns.
Where to Start: The 7-11-4 Reality Check
Before you plan your first video, there is one piece of research worth understanding.
Google’s 7-11-4 study found that today’s buyers need to spend around seven hours engaging with your content, across eleven touchpoints, on four separate platforms, before they are ready to make a decision.
That number surprises most people. Seven hours.
Think about what that means for a single LinkedIn post. Or a one-off webinar. Or a website with no content library behind it.
Video is the single fastest way to build those seven hours. A well-structured YouTube channel of ten to fifteen videos gives a prospect the ability to binge your content in an afternoon. A consistent LinkedIn presence — one or two videos a week — means that when a prospect comes back to your page six months after first seeing your name, you are still there, still showing up, still building the relationship.
This is not a sprint. The IFAs who get consistent enquiries from video are the ones who treated it as a long-term asset, not a short-term campaign. It typically takes six to twelve months of consistent publishing before video starts to generate measurable enquiry flow.
That is not a reason to delay. It is a reason to start now.
You Are Not Too Boring for Video
There is a persistent myth in regulated industries that compliance equals dull — and that dull does not convert.
It is worth challenging both assumptions.
Sunny Lenarduzzi, one of the most respected voices in content strategy, has made the argument that we are moving out of the attention economy entirely. People are overwhelmed by noise. In that environment, boring is not a disadvantage. Clarity is an advantage. Specificity is an advantage. Genuinely useful content is an advantage.
The adviser who sits down and explains, in plain language, how pension drawdown actually works is not boring. They are useful. And useful is exactly what high-net-worth clients are looking for from a firm they are considering trusting with their financial future.
You do not need to dance on camera. You do not need a viral hook. You need to answer the questions your clients are already asking — on camera, consistently, over time.
Summary
Video marketing for IFAs works. It builds trust, generates enquiries, and positions your firm as the credible, approachable choice in your market.
The firms that fail at video treat compliance as a reason not to start. The firms that succeed treat compliance as part of the workflow — something to involve early, not avoid entirely.
Your job is not to make compliance disappear. Your job is to build a workflow where compliance is the first conversation, not the last.
When you do that, the camera becomes the least complicated part of the whole process.
