The platform industry in 2025: Fundscape update shows it was a year of two halves

The platform industry hit record after record in 2025. Stellar stock markets powered assets past £1.3trn – the largest single-year gain in the industry’s history, at £178bn (advice platforms: £98bn). Gross flows also broke the all-time record at £191bn (advice: £97bn) surpassing even the bumper year of 2021, according to the latest data released from Fundscape. Adviser platforms drove much of that growth, contributing £98bn in asset gains and a record £97bn in gross flows.

But 2025 was also a tale of two halves. Rising markets and falling interest rates lifted investor sentiment in the first half of the year, only for budget anxiety to strike in the second half. For the second year running, the prospect of tax changes triggered a wave of lump-sum withdrawals, quarterly Sipp net sales to their worst level since 2012 and dragging net flows on adviser platforms to a two-year low of £3bn. Despite this, annual net flows of £36.3bn (adviser: £17.6bn) were a solid improvement on 2024’s £28.7bn (adviser: £13.2bn), and the industry will be hoping that the Chancellor’s next budget doesn’t make it a hat-trick.

Fundscape CEO, Bella Caridade-Ferreira said, “Advisers and investors have become battle-hardened over the past few years and are far more stoical about geopolitical turbulence than they once were. That resilience is showing up in the numbers.

“The road ahead is not without its hazards. Geopolitical risks, the ongoing fallout from successive budgets and the lingering uncertainty around pension taxation could yet weigh on sentiment. But the structural case remains compelling. The complexity created by two years of fiscal change will drive demand for advice and put assets on an upward trajectory. In our realistic scenario, we expect all-platform assets to reach £2.4trn by 2030, with the adviser component hitting £1.5trn.”

The full press release with details of leading platforms will be published on 5 March 2026.