More than half of fund groups (56%) experienced increased quarterly onshore and offshore net retail sales in the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest Pridham Report from ISS Market Intelligence.
This comes despite retail net outflows of $5bn in Q1, only broadly in line with Q4 2025, the report found.
Benjamin Reed-Hurwitz, head of research development, EMEA & North America at ISS MI, said: “While net sales were muted in the first quarter, that only tells part of the story.
“Beneath the surface, there was still a considerable amount of portfolio activity as advisers and fund selectors continued to reposition in response to volatility and an increasingly uncertain geopolitical backdrop.”
Gross sales were dominated by BlackRock and Vanguard, which took home more than £10bn and £9bn in sales respectively.
However, on a net sales level, Vanguard took home the top spot, with more than £2.6bn in sales, driven primarily by demand for its passive equity funds and LifeStrategy multi-asset range.
“Artemis followed, achieving record gross sales in Q1 thanks to high demand for its equity strategies, especially its global income fund.”
The Artemis Global Income fund has been the best-performing strategy in the IA Global Equity Income sector across all standard time frames (one, three, five and 10 years), according to FE fundinfo data.
In the first quarter of the year, the fund rose from some £4.2bn in assets under management to £5.2bn, according to FE data.
See also: Why 2025’s top income fund has gone big on emerging markets
Fidelity Asset Management also achieved a record in onshore retail sales during the quarter, due to strong passive equity and fixed income sales.
Orbis Investments posted another record sale in mixed-asset and equity sales. The rest of the top 10 was filled out by HSBC Asset Management, Hargreaves Lansdown, Aegon Asset Management, Ninety One, T.Rowe Price and Royal London Asset Management.
However, offshore fund sales looked slightly different.
“Offshore fund ranges are an important driver for many fund groups’ sales to UK investors,” Reed-Hurwitz noted. “Several of today’s largest fund selectors are looking for the broadest selection of funds possible, leading to interest in many of the best-selling offshore ranges.”
HSBC Asset Management led the offshore net sales chart with £865m in retail sales. Man Group, L&G Asset Management, Schroders and Aegon Asset Management also populated the top five by offshore sales.
However, the report noted that volatility did not cause investors to put their money in just one place, with flows spread relatively evenly across asset classes and strategies.
For example, Asian equities, emerging markets, and absolute return strategies drew attention as diversifiers, while multi-asset and unitised MPS solutions also remained resilient according to the report.
“MPS and multi-asset solutions also continued to attract flows, although the picture underneath those allocations is becoming increasingly nuanced.
“In periods like this, it becomes harder to distinguish between genuinely new money entering the market and ongoing portfolio rebalancing within existing investment structures,” Reed-Hurwitz noted.
He said that looking forward, targeted support from the FCA could inject some life into the relatively subdued market.
“While it remains too early to judge the eventual impact, it reflects a broader push to increase participation in investment markets and encourage more consumers to engage with long-term investing.”
While targeted support looks to bridge the advice gap, it must be noted that engaging do-it-yourselves investors is also increasingly on the radar, a trend that spans the globe,” he concluded.
See also: Vanguard hires BlackRock’s Marchioni as multi-asset head
