The world of personal finance has been continually reshaped and transformed by fast-moving technological, regulatory and behavioural changes over the last few years, and this is set to continue into 2026.
We spoke with Brian Byrnes, director of personal finance at Moneybox, who shared the three dominate finance trends he believes will define the year ahead.
1. Investing
“One of the trends we have seen in 2025 that is just going to continue into 2026 is the overall push towards more investing, and people becoming more confident when it comes to moving from cash to investing,” highlights Byrnes.
He predicts that UK Retail Investment Campaign (which is due to launch in April 2026) alongside ongoing changes and clarifications regarding investment risk warnings, will further increase people’s confidence in investing in the upcoming year.
The democratisation of investing tools has also made investing more accessible than ever before.
“You used to have to turn up to a financial adviser or a relatively expensive investment trading house and pay quite a lot in fees to invest, but there are now lots of places where you can get started with investing from as a little as a pound,” says Byrnes. “All of these places have ready made investment solutions off the shelf, so you don’t have to pick a stock or a fund yourself, you can just pick something like a cautious balance or an adventurous portfolio within five minutes.”
For first-timer investors, Byrnes recommends starting off small.
“I think the most important thing to do as we head into next year is just to get started with investing,” says Byrnes. “It’s much less expensive and less risky than most people think. The best thing to do is just get started with small amounts so you can build up your knowledge and your confidence with it.”
2. AI
“Many people don’t get access to regulated financial advice in the UK and millions of people are left to their own devices to make these kinds of financial decisions, so it’s no surprise that people are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT for financial advice,” recognises Byrnes.
“We are hoping that what will happen from next year is that people will start turning to regulated providers who will be using AI to provide them with guidance, target and support, and advice about their finances rather than going to AI chatbots directly that don’t have any regulations or oversight about the advice they offer you.”
Byrnes thinks there are two main benefits of AI in this sector.
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“I think one of the main benefits of AI is the delivery of financial advice,” says Byrnes. “Financial advisers will be able to serve a lot more customers because of operational efficiencies from using AI to streamline practises, so should have more time to spend with customers.”
He also recognises that AI is good at giving people quick, easy answers at a time that is convenient to them.
“You can open up your AI tool of choice and ask it a question and it will give you an immediate answer,” says Byrnes. “However, it shouldn’t be used as definitive financial advice because AI tools have their limitations in terms of hallucinations and not always being perfectly accurate.
“So, I think it’s okay to use them as reference tools, but they shouldn’t be the one-and-only tool that you use to make financial decisions. You should be cross-referencing it against ideally a financial adviser or other sources of information beyond AI before you make you make a financial decision.
“AI is not going to go away, it’s just going to accelerate into 2026 and we need to make sure that people are using this technology safely.”
3. Pension dashboards
“The other major thing that will shape the personal finance landscape in 2026 will be the pension dashboards when that comes into fruition,” says Byrnes. “It’s been almost 10 years in the making now, but it does look like, from the most recent updates, that the pension dashboards are currently going through consumer testing and once that’s done and dusted over first half of next year, we may actually get to a point where we have a date for when pensions dashboards become available.”
The aim of the pensions dashboards is to allow individuals to see their pensions information, including their State Pension, for free in one place online at a time of their choosing, according to the government’s website. Pensions dashboards will also reunite savers with lost or forgotten pensions.
“This will help the pension system become much simpler and easier for consumers to understand,” says Byrnes.
However, in the meantime, Byrnes advises people to not “bury their head in the sand” about pensions.
“The first step is to assess where you are and to make sure that for every job that you’ve had, you know where your pension related to that job is,” advises Byrnes.
“There’s a free centralised Pension Tracing Service online at GOV.UK, but there’s also plenty of commercial providers which offer pension tracing services. At Moneybox we have what we call pension detectives which helps you track down where those pensions might be.”