Flows into platforms have surged in the first quarter of 2026, despite US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran sending shockwaves through markets, Fundscape’s latest Platform report revealed.
Gross flows jumped to £51.3bn for industry platforms, and £27.5bn for advised platforms. This was the highest level of advised sales on record, rising by £4bn year-on-year, following strong January and February before geopolitical conflict.
This is even though industry assets finished the period were roughly flat, with total assets for the quarter coming in at roughly £1.32trn.
Adviser platform assets, meanwhile, were down compared with their previous levels. By the end of Q4 2025, adviser platforms held £782.9bn, but by the end of the most recent quarter, this had slid by about £4.3bn.
In terms of platform performance, Aegon dominated gross sales, capturing roughly 20% of the flows into all platforms for the quarter. Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell followed closely behind with 13.3% and 10.9% of sales.
See also: ‘The cost cat among the pigeons’: Hargreaves Lansdown cuts platform fees
However, pivoting to net sales, Aegon falls out of the top 10, with Quilter replacing it at the top with 21.7% of the net sales. AJ Bell trailed just behind at 20.8% of net sales.
Meanwhile, adviser platforms were extremely top-heavy, with Quilter, Transact and Aviva dominating both gross and net sales for the quarter. This cohort captured 90% of the quarter’s net flows.
“The market is fracturing, and the leaders are pulling away from the rest”, the Platform Report noted.
Bella Caridade-Ferreira, CEO of Fundscape, said: “Q1 was a strong quarter despite the impact of the Iran war.
“The underlying demand for advice and long-term investment remains intact.”
Changes in the budget have led to onshore bonds replacing tax ISAs as investors’ preferred tax wrapper, with bonds recording almost twice the net flows of ISAs, according to Fundscape data.
Caridade-Ferreira added: “Looking ahead to the second quarter, the ISA season will cushion the industry, and the advice pipeline looks comparatively healthy.
“But much depends on whether the geopolitical and domestic noise settles before the end of the quarter,” she concluded.
See also: AJ Bell: Persistent Budget uncertainty ‘directly at odds’ with mission to boost retail investment
