Advised platforms hit record-high gross sales last year, rising from £80bn in 2024 to £92.8bn in 2025, a report from The Lang Cat has shown.

Its State of the Platform Nation report noted that while the year had a volatile start as trade wars affected growth in Q1, advised platform assets under management (AUM) surpassed £750bn by the end of the year.

This rise in AUM was primary driven by market growth, with movement of existing assets forming the majority of the increase.

Despite the growth, outflows persisted from advised platforms, hitting another record high of £72.4bn in 2025, up from £65.7bn in 2024.

Outflows spiked in the second half of the year as Budget speculation caused widespread concerns, often centred around tax-free cash being abolished.

The Lang Cat noted that, among advised platforms, 2025 was a story of “the strong getting stronger”.

The top five advised platforms – Quilter, Transact, Aviva, Nucleus, and AJ Bell Investcentre – all increased their market share.

Quilter set a new industry record with £16.4bn of gross sales, while Transact and Aviva reported gross sales of £10.6bn and £10.3bn respectively.

These three platforms accounted for 89% of advised net sales and 62% of positive net sales.

The report highlighted that direct to consumer (D2C) platforms also had a strong year, with Interactive Investor, AJ Bell, and Moneybox reporting net sales comparable to the top three advised platforms, with only Quilter recording more in the advised space.

It also emphasised that regulation was continuing to shape investor behaviour, with changes to capital gains tax (CGT) allowances and upcoming changes to inheritance tax (IHT) leading to a ‘surge’ in sales of platform investment bonds.

Onshore bond sales increased by 67.9% last year, while offshore bond sales rose by 27%, their best years on record.

“[Last year] 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,” commented The Lang Cat senior analyst, Rich Mayor.

“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 Moneybox 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.”

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