The article is devoted to the theoretical analysis of financial consulting as an institutional mechanism for improving the standard of living of the population. In contrast to the narrowly applied approach dominant in the literature, consulting is viewed as a stable economic institution producing a mixed good that combines the private benefit of the client with socially significant externalities – namely, the reduction of systemic information asymmetry and the strengthening of financial market stability. Two channels of consulting's impact on well-being are identified and conceptualized: a direct one (optimization of household debt burden and transformation of savings behavior) and an indirect one (improving the survival rate of small businesses with a multiplier effect on employment and local markets). With regard to the new regions of the Russian Federation, the effect of a «double institutional gap» – regulatory and communicative – is substantiated, under which consulting performs the function not so much of optimization as of legitimization of Russian financial practices, acting as an institutional interpreter. The contours of hybrid models of consulting organization, combining market incentives with state participation, are outlined.