Retail Distribution Report
The rise of the self-directed investor is changing the shape of distribution. For many asset managers with retail channels, more than half of all customers will be self-directed, even if today’s £ volumes still come largely from the advised channel. In the era of Consumer Duty, the need to understand these investors is significant. Direct books alone do not paint a representative picture of demographics, user journeys, costs paid, service or other factors.
Download the Table of Contents
Get a free preview of the insights shaping distribution strategies in today’s self-directed landscape. Download the Table of Contents to see how asset managers can adapt to evolving investor behaviour, regulatory expectations, and digital transformation.
Who is it for?
This report is essential reading for asset managers, investment trusts, and wider market observers, including consultants and acquisitions, looking to navigate the shifting dynamics of retail distribution.
As self-directed investors play an increasingly dominant role in the market, understanding their behaviours, needs and impact is critical for those shaping and responding to modern distribution strategies.
This report will:
Support market sizing & segmentation
Quantify the scale and shape of the self-directed retail market
Review performance & value
Understand how key platforms deliver value and what investors pay
Track investor journeys & decision-making
Track how investors discover, choose and evaluate investment products
Share strategic implications
Identify the commercial and regulatory impacts of these shifts in a Consumer Duty environment
Key chapters
The UK self-directed landscape – data to support understanding of current self-directed landscape, and the scale of growth and change in recent years
Platform profiles – Profiles of 9 of the top self-directed platforms in the market, identifying commercial opportunities and understanding how platforms deliver value in unique ways
Fees and charges–Pricing tables for top platforms across a range of investor profiles and scenarios, helping asset managers understand both costs and value delivered to customers of key distributors, so considering value across the entire chain
Investor decision making –understanding what information is important to investors when purchasing and reviewing their investments, typical investment buying journeys and points of influence, and how this differs for Funds, Investment Trusts and ETFs
Forecast for £AUA and customer growth in the non-advised channel
What's in the report?
• Confirm the market shares of major DIY platforms
• Demographic data on DIY investors
• Take a look at the value delivered by leading platforms (with metrics from their customers) to support asset managers with a better "understanding of value" delivered across the chain
• Share pricing information for fund and investment trust holdings on all leading platforms at various portfolio sizes, to support your view of the consumer’s total cost of ownership of your products
• Review the buying journeys and influence points for retail investors –what information are they sourcing about your products, and where
• Understand information needed for investors monitoring their investments on an ongoing basis
• Qualitative insights on investor behaviours and influence points across recent market volatility
Sources and methods
Market AUA and Customer Account data collected from 20+ D2C platform providers
Survey of 3,000 fund investors, Q3 and Q4 2024.
Survey of 6,000 self-directed investors, June and November 2024
Boring Money testing of the public and secure sites, services and call centres of 40+ D2C platforms, including secure sites and call centres
Survey of 500 self-directed investors on the Boring Money research panel, May 2025
Get in touch with us to buy the report
Please contact rachel@boringmoney.co.uk for more information or to request a call with the research team.
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