Advised platforms hit record gross sales of £92.82bn in 2025, up from £79.97bn in 2024 and £63.47bn in 2023, according to the lang cat.
The consultancy’s latest annual State of the Platform Nation (SOTPN) report shows that despite a volatile start to the year with trade wars impacting growth in Q1, AUM surpassed £750bn by the end of the year, with asset movement of existing assets forming the bulk of the growth.
Amongst advised platforms, 2025 was a story of the strong getting stronger, with the top five – Quilter, Transact, Aviva, Nucleus and AJ Bell Investcentre – increasing market share.
Quilter set a new industry high of £16.44bn for gross sales. Transact and Aviva were second and third and recorded £10.55bn and £10.28bn respectively. The same three platforms account for 89% of advised net sales and 62% of positive net sales.
The D2C market also had a strong year with platforms including Interactive Investor, AJ Bell and Moneybox posting net sales comparable to three top advised platforms, with only Quilter recording more in the advised space.
As predicted, outflows persisted from advised platforms reaching another record high of £72.37bn, up from £65.73 in 2024. These spiked in the second half of the year as the budget rumour caused widespread anxiousness, which advisers said most often centred around tax free cash being taken away.
Regulation continues to shape investor behaviour, previous changes to CGT allowances and forthcoming changes to inheritance tax (IHT) led to a surge in sales of platform investment bonds, with onshore sales up 67.9% and offshore up 27% – their best years ever. Sales in annuities have been up significantly in volume and value since Q3 2023, and have remained at consistent levels in 2025 with the average value rising.
Rich Mayor, senior analyst at the lang cat, said: “Now in its 14th year, SOTPN highlights 2025 was an eventful and record-breaking year for platforms in terms of sales, growth and outflows, with rumour and speculation around the budget playing a big role in the latter.
“Changes to CGT allowances this April and IHT implications means advisers were reigniting interest in products like on and offshore bonds – we don’t see this changing soon so platforms who offer, service and integrate these products are likely to fare better than those who don’t.
“The rise in DIY investing we saw during the pandemic does not appear to have slowed as the D2C market has enjoyed huge growth. Interactive Investor has half a million clients now, AJ Bell is just short of that, and Money box added nearly 400,000 clients in 2025 taking their total to 1.5 million. This can have huge implications for the advised sector, especially as we move into a targeted support world.”
