James Hay has blamed volatility and platform market performance after it suffered a client win dip of more than 14%.

Parent company IFG Group released its Q1 trading update today and the results revealed James Hay’s new client wins were at 1,400, down 10.8% on the previous quarter and 14.2% lower than the same period last year.

The firm believed the drop “reflects the performance of the wider platform market, driven by a slowdown in the DB transfer market, equity market volatility, and adviser focus on factors such as GDPR and MiFID.”

Assets under administration at 31 March were £25.4bn, an increase of 9.1% from 31 March last year, but the figure was down on 31 December 2017 (£25.5bn.

The firm says that “net inflows during the quarter were offset by adverse market movements.”

Financial Planning firm Saunderson House, which is also owned by IFG, made 77 new client wins across both advisory and discretionary management services in the three months to 31 March and now serves 2,214 clients, up 9.8% from March 2017.

Assets under Advice at 31 March were £5.1bn, an increase of up 8% on 31 March last year.

The figure was said to be “in line” with 31 December 2017.

The update read: “The sales process has not had a material effect on new client wins to date although some existing clients deferred making new investments.

“We may see some knock-on impact in the coming months as the creation of new client pipeline is likely to have been affected to some extent.

“However, clarity brought about by the decision not to proceed with the sales process will remove uncertainty for both new and existing clients.”

Group-wide IFG reported a slump of £0.1bn in assets under administration and advice, down from £30.6bn in December to £30.5bn now.

But, when taken as a whole, there was a 3.5% increase in clients across IFG to 61,000 in total.

Despite the setbacks the group said, “the underlying businesses have had a positive first quarter” and said they were “well positioned” for long-term growth.

Kathryn Purves, chief executive, said: “I am delighted to have joined the executive team at IFG Group.

“The group owns two businesses which continue to perform well and we have a clear focus on addressing the legacy issues within the business and delivering value to shareholders.

“We are reviewing how best to deliver this and I look forward to updating the market in due course.”