The New Financial Advisers Have Millions of Followers
Not long ago, if you wanted financial guidance, your options were relatively contained. You could read a personal finance book, ask a family member, or eventually, if the stakes were high enough, sit down with a professional. None of those options were particularly fast, viral, or entertaining.
Then came TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, and with them a new category of financial personality that nobody quite had a name for until recently. Finfluencer, a blend of financial and influencer, now describes anyone who uses social media to share opinions, tips, and guidance on money, investing, and wealth. Some have millions of followers. Some post daily. Some generate substantial income from the very audiences they are ostensibly helping.
The phenomenon is genuinely new, growing fast, and significant enough that regulators across four continents have now taken coordinated action to address it. Understanding what finfluencers are, what the evidence says about the quality of their advice, and how to make intelligent use of the content that is genuinely valuable, is increasingly important for anyone who consumes financial content online.
The Scale of What We Are Talking About
The numbers behind this trend are large enough to take seriously. A review of nine popular finance-related hashtags across social media between June and November 2025, cited by Resolver, found that they received over 21 million mentions across social platforms in that period alone.
Charles Schwab's 2024 Modern Wealth Survey found that 38% of Gen Z consumers in the United States receive financial information or advice from YouTube, and 33% turn to TikTok. Research from the CFA Institute's 2024 report, tracking behaviour across multiple markets, found that 38% of Gen Z investors in the UK, 37% in the US, 30% in Canada, and 51% in China cite social media influencers as a major factor in their decisions to start investing.
In Australia, ASIC's Moneysmart research from late 2025 found that 63% of Gen Z Australians aged 18 to 28 rely on social media for financial information, with 56% saying they somewhat or completely trust what they find there, and 52% expressing trust in finfluencers specifically.
These are not trivial numbers. They represent a meaningful and growing share of the investment decisions being made by a generation that will inherit, accumulate, and deploy an enormous amount of wealth over the next several decades. The quality of financial content they consume is not a niche concern. It is a systemic one.
What the Research Says About the Quality of That Advice
Here is where the conversation requires honesty, because the evidence is difficult to read charitably.
MoneySuperMarket conducted a review of over 350 short-form financial videos on a mainstream platform between February and March 2024. The findings: 81% of videos contained unregulated financial advice, 74% contained poor, misleading, or dangerous tips, and 76% presented unrealistic gain scenarios while downplaying associated risks.
A separate analysis of 29,000 social media financial influencers, cited by The Guardian, concluded that investors may actually be better off doing the exact opposite of the recommendations they receive from the typical finfluencer. That is a striking finding, though it reflects the average across a very large and varied population of content creators. It does not mean that no finfluencer content is useful. It does mean that the average quality is low enough to treat all of it with caution.
Edelman Financial Engines research cited by CNBC found that approximately 27% of social media users have believed misleading financial advice or misinformation from social media. Around 42% of surveyed adults in their 30s reported having fallen for bad financial advice on social platforms, with 2 in 10 having been affected more than once.
And from Barclays, whose October 2024 research looked specifically at investment scam activity: 52% of investment scams now take place on social media, with 39% of 18 to 24-year-olds saying they feel unsafe online because of the prevalence of investment scams.
None of this means that social media has no role in financial education. It means that the market for financial content online is heavily polluted, and that the signals most people use to evaluate trustworthiness, follower count, production quality, confident delivery, and relatable personality, have very little correlation with the accuracy or appropriateness of the underlying advice.
Why Finfluencers Exist and Why They Work
To understand why this phenomenon has grown so quickly and attracted such large audiences, it helps to start with what drives people toward it in the first place.
The core explanation is what Barclays calls the advice gap: the widening space between the demand for accessible financial guidance and the number of people who can actually afford or access professional advice. Traditional financial advisers typically work with clients above a certain asset or income threshold. For a 24-year-old with $5,000 in savings, a few thousand dollars of student debt, and no inherited wealth, sitting down with a licensed financial planner is often not a realistic option.
Finfluencers fill that gap. They are free, accessible, informal, and often cover exactly the questions that young people are actually asking. How do I start investing? What is a Roth IRA? Should I pay off debt before investing? Is my employer pension worth joining? Those are real questions that deserve real answers, and for many people, a YouTube video or TikTok post is the first place they encounter them.
As the World Economic Forum noted in its 2024 report on the future of financial advice, 76% of millennials and Gen Z polled believe that financial topics have become less taboo because of the prevalence of financial content on social media. That is not a trivial benefit. Reducing the stigma around talking about money, encouraging people to think about investing earlier, and helping financial concepts feel less intimidating are all genuinely positive contributions.
The problem is that the same format that makes financial education accessible also makes financial misinformation extremely easy to spread. And the incentive structures governing social media content do not reward accuracy. They reward engagement, which means content that makes bold claims, promises easy returns, and appeals to emotion performs better algorithmically than content that is balanced, nuanced, and appropriately hedged.
As ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland stated in April 2026: what people see online is shaped by algorithms designed to drive clicks and engagement, rather than promoting accurate information. This means consumers are more exposed to biased or misleading content, regardless of their intent when they sit down to learn.
The Hidden Business Model You Need to Understand
One of the most important things to understand about financial content creators is that many of them have financial relationships with the products and services they discuss, and those relationships are not always clearly disclosed.
Finfluencers can earn income through advertising revenue on platforms like YouTube, sponsored content paid for directly by financial product companies, affiliate arrangements where they receive a commission when followers sign up for a product or open an account, and through selling their own courses, coaching programmes, or investment communities.
The Ontario Securities Commission research on Canadian retail investors and finfluencers identified this clearly: most finfluencers are not affiliated with registered broker-dealers or investment advisers, yet they disseminate information that retail investors may treat as personalised guidance. The difference between education and advice is meaningful in regulatory terms, but invisible in a 60-second video.
The consequence is that a finfluencer enthusiastically promoting a particular brokerage platform, cryptocurrency, or investment product may be doing so because they believe in it, because they are being paid to promote it, or both, and the viewer cannot reliably tell which. US regulations require that paid promotions be disclosed, but enforcement is inconsistent and several high-profile cases have involved celebrities and influencers promoting financial products without adequate disclosure of their compensation.
What Global Regulators Are Doing About It
The regulatory response to finfluencer activity has accelerated significantly since 2023, and is now genuinely global in scope.
In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority issued updated guidance in March 2024 requiring that all financial promotions on social media be fair, clear, and not misleading, with appropriate risk warnings. The FCA has worked with platforms to remove over 10,000 misleading advertisements, and in May 2024 brought legal charges against nine individuals for operating an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme and issuing unauthorised financial information across social media.
In Australia, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken coordinated action in two consecutive Global Weeks of Action Against Unlawful Finfluencers, issuing warning notices to suspected unlawful operators across the country. The April 2026 action involved 17 regulators globally, covering Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and the Middle East. ASIC's position is unambiguous: finfluencers must hold an Australian Financial Services licence or operate as an authorised representative to legally provide investment advice.
In India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has been among the most active regulators globally. SEBI's October 2024 circular prohibited regulated financial entities from associating with unregistered finfluencers for marketing or referral arrangements. In December 2025, SEBI ordered the impounding of over Rs 546 crore from a prominent finfluencer found to be operating an unregistered investment advisory service under the cover of financial education, in what it described as one of the toughest actions yet in this space.
In France, it has been made illegal for influencers to promote financial products, including cryptocurrencies, through paid content, with penalties of up to two years in prison and fines of up to 300,000 euros for violations.
In Canada, the Ontario Securities Commission research has informed new policy work exploring how to reduce investor harm from misleading social media financial content, including the use of disclosure requirements and prebunking strategies.
The convergence of regulatory action across this many jurisdictions simultaneously is itself a signal about the seriousness of the problem. Regulators who rarely agree on anything are aligned on the core message: a large proportion of online financial advice is unregulated, misleading, and causing real harm to real investors.
The Finfluencers Who Are Worth Following
It would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest that all finfluencer content is harmful. Some creators are doing genuinely valuable work.
The meaningful distinction is between finfluencers who explain concepts and finfluencers who give specific recommendations. Content that explains how compound interest works, what the difference between a Roth and a traditional IRA is, how to read a fund's expense ratio, or what diversification actually means is educational in the truest sense. It increases financial literacy without directing individual behaviour.
Content that says buy this stock now, this crypto will 10x, avoid your pension and do this instead, or here is the portfolio that will make you rich is giving advice, and it is advice that takes no account of the individual viewer's circumstances, risk tolerance, tax situation, or financial goals.
As Charles Schwab notes, social media users who follow finfluencers can protect themselves by checking the credentials of those they follow and cross-referencing claims with established sources before acting. Credentials to look for include registration with relevant regulatory bodies (FCA in the UK, SEC or FINRA in the US, ASIC in Australia, SEBI in India), transparent disclosure of any sponsored relationships, and a consistent pattern of acknowledging uncertainty and risk alongside potential returns.
Certified financial planner Douglas Boneparth, quoted by CNBC, suggests cross-referencing any influencer's claims with sources like government regulators and reputable financial publications before acting. That is a simple standard that filters out most of the problematic content without requiring viewers to become financial experts themselves.
The Problem That Personalisation Solves
Perhaps the most important structural limitation of finfluencer advice is one that no level of credential or good intention can fully overcome: it is not about you.
Financial advice, genuinely useful financial advice, is personal. It depends on your income, your debts, your tax jurisdiction, your employer benefits, your family situation, your risk tolerance, your time horizon, and your goals. A 28-year-old in Lagos saving for retirement has meaningfully different needs from a 55-year-old in Singapore managing intergenerational wealth. A 35-year-old in Toronto navigating an employer pension and a rental property has a different planning picture from a 35-year-old in Dubai with equity compensation and no capital gains tax.
No 60-second video can account for that. And the advice that is right for the person delivering it, or for the hypothetical average viewer, may be wrong or even harmful for your specific situation. The Guardian's analysis puts it plainly: financial advice should not be one-size-fits-all, because no two people's financial lives are the same.
This is not an argument against using social media as a starting point for financial education. It is an argument for knowing when education ends and personalised planning begins, and for seeking qualified guidance for the decisions that actually matter.
Five Questions to Ask Before Acting on Finfluencer Advice
If you consume financial content online, as most people do, a simple checklist before acting on any specific recommendation is worth internalising.
Is this person regulated? Check whether they hold a licence or registration in your jurisdiction. In the UK, use the FCA Register. In Australia, ASIC's professional registers. In the US, FINRA's BrokerCheck or the SEC's investment adviser search. If they are not registered and they are recommending specific investments, that is a significant red flag.
Is this sponsored content? Look for explicit disclosure that the content was paid for by a financial product company. If a specific platform, fund, or product is being enthusiastically recommended and no disclosure appears, assume the incentive structure may not align with your interests.
What are they promising? Guaranteed returns, easy wealth, or specific target prices on investments are reliable warning signs. Legitimate financial education acknowledges uncertainty. Content that does not is almost certainly not serving you.
Does this apply to my situation? Consider whether the advice was created with any knowledge of your income, debts, tax position, or goals. If it could not possibly have been, treat it as general education, not as a personal recommendation.
What does a qualified professional say? For any significant financial decision, treat social media content as a prompt for a conversation with a regulated adviser, not a substitute for one.
How Celerey Can Help
The advice gap that drives people toward finfluencers is real. Access to personalised, qualified financial guidance has historically been too expensive, too inaccessible, or too intimidating for too many people. That is a genuine problem worth solving.
At Celerey, we work with clients across global markets to provide the kind of advice that social media simply cannot: personalised, qualified, and structured around your specific circumstances. Whether you are starting to build wealth, navigating a major financial decision, or wondering whether your current financial plan is actually working, those are conversations that deserve more than an algorithm-optimised video.
If you have questions that your social media feed is not quite answering to your satisfaction, we would be glad to help. Reach out to the Celerey advisory team to start the conversation.