Outflows from advised platforms rose to £16.2bn in the first quarter of 2024, data has shown.
This was an increase of 9 per cent on the previous quarter and 35 per cent compared with the same time last year, according to data from the Lang Cat.
“As we mentioned last time out, we expect outflows to remain elevated this year and we’re once again seeing new highs.
"So much so that despite the fifth best quarter for advised gross sales on our records, the outflows mean that it’s the fourth worst for advised net sales.
“We’ve said in the past that if you want to be good at platforms you’ve got to be good at pensions, and that’s likely to ring truer this year than it has in some time.
"The detail around the LTA abolition came relatively late, but that’s an opportunity for platforms to deploy their technical support to help advisers.”
An increase in pension flows into platforms saw the highest levels since 2017, which could be down to the abolition of the lifetime allowance which came into force in April.
Across all channels, there were pension gross flows of £12bn.
Mayor added: “A very welcome boon to platform flows this quarter was due to huge flows into pensions; the bedrock of platform growth over the past decade or so.
"The numbers we’ve seen rival the best ever numbers for pensions and are the fourth best numbers for the advised channel we’ve ever seen.
"We’re hearing the abolition of the lifetime allowance has had some effect here, and we think that could elevate pension flows for some time yet."
Nucleus came top of the assets under advice list this quarter with £89.13bn - the firm has now combined reporting numbers of James Hay and Nucleus along with adding the Curtis Banks book, which it bought in September 2023.
Quilter came top for advised gross sales in the quarter with £2.72bn, its best since 2018. It has now been top for the past 10 quarters.
It was closely beaten by Aviva when it came to advised net sales, which reported £1.05bn, compared with Quilter's £1.03bn.
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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