News of a 20% profits hike for fund adviser Hargreaves Lansdown in the year to June has illustrated the way small is becoming beautiful as far as the wealth advisory business is concerned.

Gone are the boom days when punters automatically signed up for equity placings and structured products concocted by the big banks. They are deeply unforgiving of the losses they incurred when the credit crisis blew up. They have learned that portfolios assembled by large banks are far from immune from problematic investments, typified by funds from fraudster Bernard Madoff.