Later this month, the Treasury is expected to launch its consultation on how P2P loans are to be included in the new £15,000-a-year tax-free Isa wrapper. The document has been a while coming and quite a few tricky issues remain to be resolved before retail investors will be able to start putting loan parts into their accounts alongside stocks, shares and cash.

One big question the consultation will not answer, however, is whether the UK’s 30,000- plus financial advisers are ready and willing to help clients who want to start investing in P2P loans to do so. Many advisers know relatively little about P2P and are likely to treat this relatively new asset class with caution, viewing it as unknown and therefore risky.

That is a shame. Lending against property, for example, offers a decent level of security given that there is a real asset standing behind the loan as well as providing a sensible way to diversify the risks in a portfolio composed of listed equity and bond investments. Demand from clients to invest in P2P assets is growing strongly, which is something the government and others are keen to see continue. To help this happen, financial advisers need to engage with this new opportunity soon and understand what it can offer their clients.