UK Asset Management Market Size and Share
Market Overview
| Study Period | 2019 - 2030 |
|---|---|
| Base Year For Estimation | 2024 |
| Forecast Data Period | 2025 - 2030 |
| Market Size (2025) | USD 12.22 Trillion |
| Market Size (2030) | USD 22.92 Trillion |
| Growth Rate (2025 - 2030) | 13.40% CAGR |
| Market Concentration | Medium |
Major Players
*Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order Image © Mordor Intelligence. Reuse requires attribution under CC BY 4.0. |
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UK Asset Management Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence
The UK Asset Management market reached USD 12.22 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to expand to USD 22.92 trillion by 2030, advancing at a 13.40% CAGR. Growth reflects renewed overseas mandate inflows, steady domestic pension contributions, and an active pipeline of new fund structures under the Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF) regime. Institutional investors are allocating more to private credit, infrastructure, and unlisted equity, while retail clients gravitate toward digital-first platforms and fractional ownership options. The Financial Conduct Authority’s five-year strategy and its Digital Securities Sandbox are accelerating tokenized fund pilots, improving cost efficiency and settlement speed. Fee compression in exchange-traded products continues, but managers with scale or specialist expertise are preserving margins through operating leverage, data analytics, and differentiated service models. Consolidation and selective acquisitions remain prevalent as firms seek talent, alternative capabilities, and technology.
Key Report Takeaways
- By asset class, equity held 41.5% of the UK Asset Management market share in 2024, while alternative assets are projected to post a 15.45% CAGR through 2030.
- By firm type, banks led with 39.9% share of the UK Asset Management market in 2024; wealth advisory firms record the fastest forecast CAGR at 14.91% to 2030.
- By mode of advisory, human advisory captured 93.6% of the UK Asset Management market size in 2024, whereas robo-advisory is expected to grow at 20.65% CAGR between 2025-2030.
- By client type, institutional investors commanded 73.6% share of the UK Asset Management market size in 2024; retail is the fastest-growing segment at a 17.87% CAGR to 2030.
- By management source, onshore mandates represented 54.3% of assets in 2024, but offshore-delegated assets are forecasted to expand at a 14.27% CAGR through 2030 for the UK Asset Management market.
UK Asset Management Market Trends and Insights
Drivers Impact Analysis
| Driver | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overseas mandates now represent a significant portion of UK-managed AuM | +3.20% | Global, with concentration in North America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Rise of private markets & alternatives allocations | +2.80% | Global, with emphasis on UK domestic market | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
| Digital-first retail investing & fractional shares | +1.90% | UK domestic, with spillover to European markets | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Accelerating ESG / SDR-labelled fund inflows | +1.70% | UK and Europe | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Tokenized fund structures gaining FCA sandbox slots | +1.50% | UK domestic, with potential global implications | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
| LTAF regime unlocking DC access to illiquids | +1.30% | UK domestic | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Overseas mandates exceed 49% of AuM
Overseas clients now account for nearly half of total UK-managed assets, underscoring the export strength of the UK Asset Management market[1]The Global City, “UK Asset Management: Export strength,” theglobalcity.uk. International sovereign wealth funds favor UK managers for fixed-income and alternative strategies, taking advantage of the UK’s time-zone bridge and robust legal protections. Multinational managers continue to expand distribution hubs in London to secure passport-free access to global capital pools. This steady foreign demand boosts fee-earning assets, diversifies revenue streams, and reinforces the UK’s role as Europe’s largest cross-border servicing center.
Rapid private markets allocations
The Mansion House Compact encourages pension providers to commit at least 5% of default defined contribution (DC) assets to unlisted equity by 2030, fueling sustained demand for private equity, infrastructure, and private credit. Schroders, Aviva, and Legal & General have introduced multi-asset LTAFs designed for DC schemes, marrying yield potential with long-duration liabilities. As normalized interest rates widen illiquidity premia, institutional investors target the double-digit return profiles offered by private assets. Managers with origination networks and specialist risk controls benefit most from this strategic reallocation.
Digital-first retail investing
Digital platforms offering fractional shares have lowered entry barriers, prompting UK adults to invest and raising younger cohorts’ participation[2]The Investment Association, “Investment Management in the UK 2024,” theia.org. The rise of thematic portfolios, simplified account onboarding, and app-based engagement is reshaping fund distribution economics. Asset managers are responding with direct-to-consumer portals, chatbot-powered service models, and flat-fee wrappers. These innovations expand the addressable retail base and support new revenue streams to offset margin pressure elsewhere.
Accelerating ESG / SDR-labelled fund inflows
The FCA’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements standardize fund labels and client-facing reports, elevating investor confidence in sustainable products. ESG mutual fund assets are on track to surpass 50% of UK retail fund assets by 2025, stimulating product proliferation in climate transition, biodiversity, and social impact themes. Transparent reporting and targeted outcomes enable asset managers to command price premiums even as traditional active products face fee compression.
Restraints Impact Analysis
| Restraint | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee compression in passive & model-portfolio channels | -1.80% | Global, with pronounced impact in UK and Europe | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Post-Brexit regulatory divergence / friction costs | -1.20% | UK domestic and EU cross-border business | Medium term (2-4 years) |
| Talent drain from rapid M&A consolidation waves | -0.90% | UK domestic, with spillover to global operations | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
| Gilt-market volatility exposing LDI liquidity risks | -0.70% | UK domestic | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Fee compression in passive channels
Active managers face shrinking headline fees as exchange-traded funds gain ground and model portfolios scale. Managers without differentiated alpha capabilities or distribution scale are consolidating, exiting sub-scale funds, or partnering to share fixed costs. Operational efficiency programs, automation of middle-office tasks, and data analytics deployments are essential to sustain profitability.
Gilt market volatility and LDI liquidity risk
The 2022 gilt crisis revealed fragilities in leveraged LDI structures, forcing schemes to maintain higher cash buffers. Repo financing costs continue rising due to quantitative tightening and elevated gilt issuance[3]Bank of England, “Digital Securities Sandbox: Draft guidance,” bankofengland.co.uk. Asset managers must refine stress-testing frameworks, diversify collateral pools, and communicate liquidity policies to trustees, all of which lift compliance overhead and constrain near-term growth.
Segment Analysis
By Asset Class: Alternatives reshape portfolio construction
Equity remained dominant at 41.5% share of the UK Asset Management market in 2024, but equity’s relative weight will gradually decrease as private credit and infrastructure allocations deepen. Strong interest-rate support for private credit and accelerating deal pipelines in energy transition projects widen the return dispersion advantage over public markets. Multi-asset strategies combining listed infrastructure, renewable debt, and unlisted equity suit trustees’ risk budgets while maintaining daily-priced liquidity buckets. Managers continue to broaden origination channels, forge co-investment clubs, and adopt distributed-ledger issuance to cut settlement cycles, giving early adopters a structural cost edge. Alternative Assets are projected to grow at a 15.45% CAGR, elevating their slice of the UK Asset Management market share as institutional and DC schemes hunt for illiquidity premia.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Firm Type: Wealth advisory momentum rises
Banks held 39.9% of the 2024 UK Asset Management market share, benefiting from integrated distribution and captive balance-sheet co-investments. However, wealth advisory firms are recording the fastest 14.91% CAGR as they capitalize on holistic planning needs, generational wealth transfers, and transparent fee models.
Advisory boutiques employ hybrid human-digital workflows, combining algorithmic portfolio construction with adviser oversight. Banks are enhancing in-house advisory arms, launching digital “guided advice” under restricted architectures, and co-creating multi-asset LTAFs with insurers. Broker-dealers remain relevant in specialist trading and structured notes but face elevated capital charges and are pivoting toward outsourcing back-office functions to focus on client origination and execution alpha.
By Mode of Advisory: Technology accelerates robo-adoption
Human Advisory controlled 93.6% of the UK Asset Management market in 2024, but hybrid propositions now embed goal-based engines and automated tax optimization, driving steady cross-sell of protection and credit products. Robo-Advisory is forecasted to post a 20.65% CAGR, moving from a small base toward mainstream acceptance. A considerable share of new DC accounts opened in 2025 elected a robo-led interface, signaling rising comfort with algorithmic recommendations.
Large asset managers are rolling out white-label robo stacks for independent advisers, enhancing scale and deepening fund penetration. Regulatory perimeter reviews clarify that simplified advice is permissible within controlled guardrails, giving digital players latitude to offer restricted advice without infringing full suitability rules. Managers are also integrating real-time ESG scoring into robo engines to align portfolios with SDR labels and client sustainability goals.
By Client Type: Retail participation accelerates
Institutional assets retained 73.6% of the 2024 UK Asset Management market share, grounded in pension, insurance, and sovereign mandates. Retail assets, however, are growing at a 17.87% CAGR owing to expanded direct-to-consumer fund supermarkets, fractional investing, and share trading apps.
Retail segment growth alters product design priorities. Managers are simplifying share classes, embedding liquidity sleeves in private market vehicles, and launching low-denomination clean-fee share classes. Advisory regulation now stresses outcome reporting, fueling demand for goal-based dashboards and consistent personal rate-of-return displays. Institutional investors continue to diversify into emerging market debt and real assets to counter duration risk, while also negotiating fee grids tied to outcome metrics.
By Management Source: Offshore strategies gain traction
Onshore mandates accounted for 54.3% of assets in 2024, but offshore-delegated assets are forecasted to grow at a 14.27% CAGR as post-Brexit rules push certain strategies to Ireland and Luxembourg. Firms are running hub-and-spoke models: investment desks remain in London or Edinburgh while fund umbrellas sit offshore to access pan-European distribution.
Regulatory clarity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 embeds growth and competitiveness objectives, encouraging the FCA to accept overseas fund recognition and streamline the Overseas Funds Regime. Managers weigh cost savings against governance obligations, often employing dual-jurisdiction boards and consolidated reporting to maintain investor trust.
Geography Analysis
London retains its primacy, hosting more than 1,100 authorized firms and accounting for a significant share of total European AuM[4]European Fund and Asset Management Association, “Asset Management Report 2024,” efama.org. Regional centers are attracting shared-service and investment teams, with Edinburgh nurturing active equity boutiques and Birmingham expanding middle-office hubs linked to large insurers. UK Asset Management market share in Scotland has edged upward as major managers diversify operational risk profiles outside the capital.
A significant share of AuM stems from overseas clients, shielding the UK from domestic macro-volatility and reinforcing sterling’s global reach as a settlement currency. Delegated mandates from Asia and the Gulf are rising, focusing on infrastructure debt and private real estate that align with long-horizon capital pools. UK fund structures remain attractive despite Brexit frictions thanks to English law, deep professional services, and a bilingual workforce.
Government policy now couples export ambitions with domestic market revitalization. Reforms to listing rules, secondary market trading hours, and digital asset issuance aim to arrest the slide in public equity market capitalization. Simultaneously, the Digital Securities Sandbox offers a testbed for blockchain settlement, likely cutting post-trade costs and enhancing competitiveness. These initiatives underpin a balanced growth trajectory across both inbound and domestic segments.
Competitive Landscape
The UK Asset Management market reflects a barbell structure: global scale players on one end and specialist boutiques on the other. The top managers together hold a significant portion of total AuM, while a long tail of specialists competes in niche strategies. Scale leaders leverage index manufacturing expertise, cross-selling of risk solutions, and data science capabilities to maintain operating margins in the face of fee compression.
Boutique managers focus on thematic strategies, concentrated active equity, and impact investing, differentiating through high-conviction processes. Several have adopted tokenization to distribute micro-funds efficiently, enabling scalable reach without diluting performance focus. Mid-tier houses pursue bolt-on acquisitions to deepen private asset skills and to fill ESG data gaps, illustrated by recent purchases of sustainability analytics providers.
Technology partnerships are increasingly strategic. A significant share of UK managers now outsource core functions such as order-management platforms or data lakes to global service providers, allowing front-office staff to focus on alpha generation. AI tools support sentiment analysis, scenario generation, and customized reporting, but human oversight remains critical for model governance and regulatory attestation. Cost-to-income ratios are stabilizing as cloud migrations progress and legacy systems sunset.
UK Asset Management Industry Leaders
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Legal & General Investment Management
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Insight Investment
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Schroders
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Aviva Investors
-
M&G Investments
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order
Recent Industry Developments
- May 2025: Future Growth Capital launched the Schroders Future Growth Capital UK and Global Private Assets LTAFs, targeting a 10% annual return after fees.
- March 2025: Legal & General introduced a diversified private markets fund within its WorkSave Mastertrust, which now holds GBP 27.12 billion across 1.88 million members.
- December 2024: Aviva’s My Future Focus fund surpassed GBP 2 billion in unlisted assets, broadening infrastructure and private equity exposure.
- August 2024: The FCA confirmed product-level SDR disclosures will begin for firms above GBP 50 billion AuM from December 2025.
Research Methodology Framework and Report Scope
Market Definitions and Key Coverage
Our study defines the United Kingdom asset management market as the total value of client assets held in segregated mandates, pooled vehicles, and investment funds managed by firms whose portfolio management decisions are taken inside the UK, regardless of the investor's domicile.
Scope exclusion: One-off advisory fees, custodial services, and sales of asset management software are outside this market.
Segmentation Overview
- By Asset Class
- Equity
- Fixed Income
- Alternative Assets
- Other Asset Classes
- By Firm Type
- Broker-Dealers
- Banks
- Wealth Advisory Firms
- Other Firm Types
- By Mode of Advisory
- Human Advisory
- Robo-Advisory
- By Client Type
- Retail
- Institutional
- By Management Source
- Offshore
- Onshore
Detailed Research Methodology and Data Validation
Primary Research
Mordor analysts interviewed portfolio managers at leading insurers, pension trustees, wholesale distributors, and fintech platforms across England, Scotland, and the Channel Islands. The conversations validated offshore mandate growth rates, average fee compression, adoption of Long-Term Asset Funds, and retail digital channel penetration, filling data gaps left by desk work.
Desk Research
We built the evidence base first by compiling publicly available datasets from authorities such as the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Office for National Statistics, and The Investment Association, which collectively track flows, fund authorizations, and pension contributions. Complementary insight came from tier-1 journals and trade bodies (EFAMA, OECD), company filings, and press archives retrieved through D&B Hoovers and Dow Jones Factiva. These sources establish historic AUM levels, client mix, and regulatory milestones that shape addressable wealth. This list is illustrative; many other documents and portals were reviewed before numbers were frozen.
Market-Sizing & Forecasting
A top-down construct starts with reported AUM from regulated firms, which are then reconciled with pension inflows, net overseas mandates, and market performance to derive a 2024 base. Select bottom-up checks, sampled manager roll-ups and average fee times asset ratios, test the plausibility of the aggregate before results are locked. Key variables include net defined contribution contributions, FCA fund launch pipeline, Bank Rate movements, UK equity market cap shifts, and sterling volatility. We forecast through multivariate regression combined with scenario analysis, allowing GDP growth and real yield paths to flex the model. When bottom-up checks diverge beyond 5%, assumptions are iterated with fresh interviews.
Data Validation & Update Cycle
Every draft passes a two-stage peer review where anomalies versus external yardsticks are flagged. Only after reconciliation and sign-off do we publish. Reports refresh each year, with mid-cycle updates triggered by material policy or market events; the analyst repeats key checks days before delivery so clients receive the newest view.
Why Mordor's UK Asset Management Baseline Proves Dependable
Published figures often differ because firms mix revenue metrics with asset pools, apply varying currency conversions, or refresh models on different calendars.
Our framework fixes a single market definition, aligns inputs to authoritative regulators, and re-checks fee and flow assumptions with practitioners, giving decision-makers a figure they can trace and replicate.
Benchmark comparison
| Market Size | Anonymized source | Primary gap driver |
|---|---|---|
| USD 12.22 trn (2025) | Mordor Intelligence | |
| GBP 10 trn (2024) | Industry Association A | Captures only member firms; omits boutique managers and applies sterling without PPP adjustment |
| USD 12.46 bn (2023) | Global Consultancy B | Tracks software and services revenue, not assets; radically narrower scope |
| USD 12.30 bn (2024) | Research Boutique C | Technology-centric segmentation; excludes institutional asset pools |
The comparison shows that scope definition and metric selection, not simple data error, drive most gaps. By anchoring to regulated AUM, refreshing annually, and cross-checking with both top-down and bottom-up signals, Mordor Intelligence delivers a balanced baseline that clients can trust.
Key Questions Answered in the Report
What is the projected growth rate for the UK Asset Management market between 2025 and 2030?
The UK Asset Management market is expected to register a 13.4% CAGR, expanding from USD 12.22 trillion in 2025 to USD 22.92 trillion by 2030.
Which asset class is growing the fastest?
Alternative assets, including private credit, infrastructure, and unlisted equity, are projected to grow at a 15.45% CAGR through 2030.
What impact does the LTAF regime have on pension investing?
The LTAF framework opens defined-contribution schemes to illiquid assets, allowing pension providers to allocate at least 5% of default funds to private markets by 2030.
Why is tokenization important for asset managers?
Tokenized fund structures reduce settlement times, enable 24/7 dealing, and lower operating costs, supporting scale and enhancing client experience.
How are fee pressures influencing industry consolidation?
Persistently lower headline fees in passive products are driving mergers and strategic alliances as managers seek scale economies and differentiated capabilities.
How significant are overseas mandates to UK managers?
Overseas clients account for a significant share of total assets under management, highlighting the UK’s global distribution reach and shielding the UK from domestic macro-volatility.
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