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Dealing with neurodiverse clients

ended 03. March 2026

We’re looking for examples of how wealth managers, brokers and other financial advisers cater for the neurodiverse, e.g. clients with autism (mild or severe), ADHD and dyslexia, as well as the deaf. What steps do you take to ensure you can provide the best possible client service to clients with these conditions? Are you finding you’re dealing with neurodiverse clients more often? Do you have any formal processes in place for dealing with this type of client and, if so, what are they (e.g. having a British Sign Language external consultant to hand, or breaking meetings or calls into smaller timeframes for those with ADHD, or only addressing one topic at a time? How important do you believe it is to be able to properly accommodate the neurodiverse and deaf? Any insights or anecdotes, send them across. This will be for FTAdviser and also, subject to responses, the consumer finance media.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
For us, accommodating neurodiverse and deaf clients isn’t an add on it’s how advice should be delivered.
Financial services are traditionally text heavy and process driven, which can unintentionally exclude people with ADHD, dyslexia or hearing needs. We redesign the experience around how clients process information.
For ADHD clients, we break long meetings into shorter structured sessions. For dyslexic clients, we simplify documents, reduce text and explain key points in plain language. For deaf clients, we work with an external British Sign Language consultant who joins meetings and provides BSL video explanations where needed.
We’re seeing more neurodiverse clients come forward not because there are suddenly more of them, but because they feel understood.
If a client doesn’t fully understand what they’re signing, that isn’t advice. It’s a transaction. Accessibility isn’t optional in modern financial planning it’s essential.
We are all about finance that fits you.
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Simon Bridgland
Broker at Charwin Private Clients
Most firms have a standard way of dealing with neurodiverse clients, however that doesn’t always fit into how the client wishes you to interact with them. I find that the best way to start is simply asking the client how they would like to be looked after, and accommodating as much is possible. It’s their issue they live with so they are the best placed to decide how they would like to be advised. It’s could be quite a basic thing such as breaking any discussion into smaller bite sized periods, keeping the conversations manageable. Using video calls if the telephone doesn’t work for them or if a physical meeting isn’t possible. I would always suggest inviting other trusted people who know the client and can be a huge help, even if just to give the client confidence in what the are dealing with. A trusted person is going to know the clients feelings, abilities and often motivation better than any amount of fact finding done by an adviser.