The advised platform market has experienced its worst quarter for net flows since 2016 with just £4.3bn added in Q4 2022 - down £5.4bn on a year earlier.

Gross sales were also down, falling to £15.6bn in 2022 Q4 versus £20.4bn in 2021 Q4.

Flows were £9.7bn in Q4 2021 and £5.5bn in Q3 2022.

Platform consultancy the lang cat, which has been recording advised platform flows since the first quarter of 2016, says the figures underline how tough 2022 was for platforms. 

It said the market saw total assets recover modestly, showing a 3.8% rise in Q4 2022 as stock markets made a spirited comeback, although that was not enough to change the picture of 2022 as a whole.

Total advised platform assets in 2022 were down £34.9bn year-on-year, a fall of 6%.

Annual net sales were down 31.1% year-on-year while gross flows also fared poorly, falling 15.7% in a difficult 12 months for the adviser platform market.

Rich Mayor, senior analyst at the lang cat, said: “The last quarter of 2022 is the lowest net sales for advised platforms on our records and rounds off a tough year for platforms.

He added: “2021 saw long-standing sales records beaten repeatedly for the right reasons, but 2022 has seen advised platforms reach new lows collectively for net sales. 

He said there was some positivity in asset trends in the final quarter but gross and net sales continued to fall throughout the year.

Mr Mayor said one cause contributing to the low numbers was less new money being placed on platforms due to the challenging macroeconomic landscape in the UK.

He added: “The other is a steady stream of outflows, which have been around the £10bn-£11bn per quarter mark since the UK emerged from the worst of the pandemic. Retirement plans that were delayed by the pandemic were put into action into 2021 and platforms have had a steady level of outflows since.

“That’s okay when you’re able to bring new business to replace it, but that amount of business is simply not there for most platforms at the moment.”