The Lang Cat has recorded a 12.9% quarter-on-quarter increase in gross sales in Q4 2025, reaching a record total of just over £26bn.

The latest figures come after the previous record was reached in Q3. In the year, gross sales totalled £92.8bn, which the financial services consultancy described as “comfortably” its best year for new business.

The firm’s advised platform assets under advice increased by 4.1% quarter-on-quarter and 14.1% year-on-year to £738.6bn, despite outflows reaching record highs amid pre-Budget rumours.

Outflows totalled just over £21.8bn, which is its highly quarterly outflows figure on record, and the highest annual total, £72.3bn, for 2025.

With this increase in outflows, net sales in Q4 dropped by over 19% quarter-on-quarter and 12.3% to £4.2bn, while annual net sales increased by 43% compared to 2024 to £20.4bn.

Senior analyst at The Lang Cat, Rich Mayor, said Q4 summed up the theme of the year, “albeit a bit more dramatically”.

He concluded: "Gross flows onto platform have been repeatedly record-breaking and we’re in the position now that the best five quarters for the past 10 years have been the last five. While the demand for advice is arguably as high as it’s ever been, gross sales include transfers between platforms and we’re seeing larger books of business moving more seamlessly when a new platform is chosen, or when a firm is acquired.

"The other dominant themes were of rumour and volatility. The beginning of the year saw volatile markets during the trade tariff negotiations but advised clients steadied the course and outflows fell from where they ended in 2024.

"The second half of the year saw the pre-Budget rumour mill start towards the end of the summer holidays and spiked in the final quarter. Platforms have been telling us that outflows have since returned to more normal levels – just as they did at the end of 2024 - but platforms and advisers will be hoping that this doesn’t become an annual tradition."

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