The average funds under advice or management for Financial Planning firms has fallen marginally over the past year to £833m (2025: £840m), but it is still considerably higher than the £690m reported in 2024.
The figures come from the new survey of Financial Planning Today readers published in the latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine which is out now.
The data revealed that the number of smaller firms, in terms of assets, continued to fall this year, with just 29% of readers saying their firm had assets under advice or management of under £50m. That compares to more than a third (39%) last year and 42% in 2024.
The number of firms managing between £51m and £200m of client money held steady at 38% (2025: 33%).
FUM at the larger firm level also continued to rise steadily in line with previous years, according to the survey. In 2026, 23% of firms had FUM of at least £500m, in comparison to 19% in 2025 and 17% in 2023.
The number of extremely large firms in terms of FUM fell slightly. There were 4% of readers who reported their firms had £5bn in assets or over this year in comparison to 12% last year, However, this was still strong growth since the 2% in 2023.
The average Financial Planner's client portfolio size, according to the reader survey, rose by more than 60% to £827,000 (2025: £516,000) and is now almost double the average portfolio size reported just two years ago (2024: £491,000).
While the number of firms with an average portfolio size of between £251,000 and £500,000 held relatively steady at 42% (2025: 38%), there were considerably fewer firms with an average client portfolio size of under £251,000 (26%) in comparison to 2025 (40%).
In 2026, 17% of firms advised clients with a typical portfolio size of more than £1m compared to 7% in 2025 (2024:4%). The £1m+ category continues to be one of the fastest growing segments.
The majority of readers continue to be employed within firms with fewer than 20 staff, with 71% working in a firm employing between 1 and 19 people, the same as last year and a slight rise from the 59% reported in 2024.
Interestingly, 14% of Financial Planning Today readers said they now work in firms of more than 100 staff. That percentage has held steady since 2020 when 15% of readers worked in firms with more than 50 staff.
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