Over Half of Retail Customers Are Now Self-Directed: What This Means for Asset Managers
Understanding the Self-Directed Investor: Impacts on Distribution in a Consumer Duty Era
By Boring Money
22 May, 2025
The retail investor channel has shot up over recent years.
Assets in non-advised accounts have trebled over the last 9 years and are heading towards £500 billion. And customer accounts have doubled over the last 5 years.
There are now more than 11 million non-advised retail investor accounts in the UK.
This changes the landscape for asset managers.
Growth is not the only reason promoting renewed interest in this channel.
Consumer Duty is also mandating a better understanding of the end investor – whether they are advised, use a platform or part of an old direct book. ETF adoption is growing fast. And investment trusts’ collective bruising at the hands of Saba has reinforced the need to build better connections with your retail customer base.
Recent volatility promoted activity and engagement. 40% of our Boring Money panel bought funds during this time, and on the other side of the seesaw 10% moved some or all of their money to cash, and 9% sold some or all of their holdings.
Whatever the action, the thirst for information was high, and people want regular information. Asset managers cannot currently turn content around in time and more people reported turning to sources like Reddit, YouTube and Boring Money during the turbulence.
Investors under 35 are 5 times more likely to look to social media than investors over 55.
In calmer times, the platforms’ role in communicating is dominant. The biggest place investors look for help is information from platforms, followed by their fund shortlists. Fund manager website are not such an important source when it comes to influencing choice and decision-making.
Our new Retail Distribution Report tracks growth in the market, and helps asset managers to understand key distributors, along with their pricing and how well they do in delivering value to customers. We track where investors go to for information, and help asset manager to understand these journeys, and where they should focus for maximum impact. We’re working with firms on articulating risk, performance and cost better, in anticipation of CCI heading our way later this year.
Our data show that about 50% of customers of major UK retail asset management brands are now non-advised, despite most assets still being held by advised customers. And yet most know very little about this cohort. The Retail Distribution Report will help you to address this.
