Wealth Platforms 2026: Why the Ecosystem is the New Competitive Weapon
As we move through 2026, the UK wealth management industry will face a series of tailwinds that will accelerate the demise of sub-scale, inefficient legacy platforms. For years, the industry talked about "digital transformation" as an abstract goal. Today, it’s becoming a competitive weapon for firms that want to increase operational efficiency, free up capacity to serve more clients, and reduce compliance risk.
Adviser dissatisfaction with fragmented tech stacks has reached a tipping point where the FUD associated with replatforming is being replaced by the strategic imperative to use an integrated technology ecosystem to drive efficiency and client satisfaction. Rigorous regulatory data requirements, the relentless downward pressures on platform fees, and the scale and maturity of challenger platforms are rewarding tech-first platforms while anchoring inefficient legacy providers in the slow lane. Those relying on price, without integration, are on a road to nowhere with no off-ramp.
The Integration Gap: Why Ecosystems Trumps Best of Breed
Data from 2025 shows a crisis in tech stack satisfaction, driven primarily by a flight to quality and an urgent need for better integration. Based on reports from The LangCat, Parmenion, and NextWealth, adviser frustration with tech stacks has reached a tipping point. In previous years, the primary concern was regulatory change. In 2026, that has been replaced by the Integration Gap. The key findings include:
Propensity to switch: research into the impact of platform service showed that the number of advisers considering or actively changing platforms due to poor service was projected to exceed 50% in 2025. Compared to 45% in 2024 and 36% in 2023.
The apology factor: 95% of advisers reported having to apologise to clients for platform-related service failures, making service quality the #1 driver for replatforming.
Consolidation trends: advisers are narrowing their focus. The average number of platforms per adviser dropped to 2.2, and 71% of new client inflows are now directed to the primary platform.
The era of best-of-breed adoption is dying: the power of a seamless ecosystem is now more valuable than any individual component. Advisers are looking for a tech stack that integrates to reduce friction, errors and manual effort.
Consumer Duty: From Admin Tool to Compliance Shield
Consumer Duty has evolved. What began as a tick-box exercise has matured into a data-heavy reporting requirement. The FCA demands evidence of outcomes, and spreadsheets simply won't cut it anymore. This shift has re-engineered the role of technology. It is no longer just an admin tool; it is now a compliance shield. Modern platforms are building continuous, real-time compliance into workflows. Instead of an annual audit, workflows provide a persistent data trail of suitability. For firms using legacy tech, this requirement is another nail in the coffin, given the manual costs of reporting. For tech-native firms, it is an automated byproduct of their existing process.
Simplified Advice: The Forced Evolution
The aim of simplified advice is to bridge the advice gap by delivering focused, cost-efficient, technology-driven recommendations to clients with straightforward needs, ensuring they receive professional guidance without the prohibitive cost or complexity of full holistic planning. The three pillars that support advice automation are:
Accurate data and granular segmentation. Larger firms are employing data experts whose remit is to ensure there is a foundation of high-integrity data to enable AI-driven insights and automations. I recently attended an SS&C AI panel session, and my favourite quote was “AI and data should always appear in the same sentence”.
AI-Driven Triage & Drafting: Agentic AI serves as the first line of defence, scanning client data to triage cases to the appropriate advice track and drafting initial suitability reports in seconds.
Interoperable Ecosystems connected via APIs: Nick Raine, CEO at Soderberg Wealth Partners in the UK and Dave Ferguson, Executive Chairman at Seccl, have been evangelising about making wealth platforms invisible to advisers for years. Their vision is for advisers to access a portal or CRM system with orchestrated workflows. In the platform as plumbing model advisers access the technology through a single interface.
Whilst adviser sentiment is divided over the take-up of simplified advice and the associated risks, there is universal agreement on one thing: it cannot be delivered without a fully integrated and automated tech stack.
Challenger Platforms: From Boutique to Mainstream
The challenger platforms that will enter the mainstream in 2026 include Fundment, Seccl, and SS&C Hubwise. Hubwise has the largest AUA at £22bn, with Fundment at £10bn and Seccl at £6bn. Fundament’s momentum is breathtaking, having increased its AUA by 66% in the last twelve months.
SS&C Hubwise is the market leader in the adviser-as-platform space, and its rapid growth is driven by its industrial approach to white-labelling, data migration, and its position within the SS&C stable, which offers global reach, access to complementary technologies like Blue Prism, and ongoing investment in AI-enabled platform enhancements.
Seccl received a boost with the Monzo win and the flawless migration of 300,000+ clients in September of 2025. The integration between Seccl and Plannr is the gold standard for what a modern, API-first tech stack should look like. When I speak to advisers, they rave about Plannr's usability and connectivity, and the business leverage this creates through the ecosystem's power.
Other notable players poised to break the £5bn AUA barrier in the coming years include P1, the Seccl-powered adviser platform, Platform 1 and Wealth OS.
Not all Established Platforms Suck
It would be unfair not to recognise the likes of Transact, 7IM and Parmenion, all of which are powered by proprietary technology they control. All three can claim to be the advisers’ favourites:
Transact is renowned for scale, service, and an unrivalled wrapper and investment range. Advisers value the human support model and the knowledgeable client service managers. With the arrival of Tom Dunbar as CEO, the platform has been reinvigorated, and 2026 will see the rollout of a single API suite.
7IM is a vertically integrated business with bespoke retirement planning technology, strong support for both bespoke DFM solutions and low-cost passive models, with the ability to access institutional-grade investment management and asset allocation directly on-platform at a competitive price point.
Parmenion scalable technology and CIP support: Renowned for slick reporting, highly automated MPS management and a digital-first client experience. Their tech stack has been designed to be scalable, efficient and resilient. This is a testament to Chris Falconer's vision and the dev team's work.
All three have a deeply ingrained service culture and consistently dominate the industry service awards. Because they own the tech, support staff can't blame the software provider for delays. They own the problem and the solution. Their proprietary tech enables them to control their own roadmaps and deployment priorities.
Why the AUA is shifting
2026 will see more legacy platform migrations than ever before. Approximately 15% of the United Kingdom’s total platform AUA are undergoing replatforming or review, with the majority of these transitions directed toward technology-enabled platforms.
While these tech-first providers manage less than 10% of the total advised AUA, they will continue to capture a disproportionate share of inflows. Their API-first architectures allow for deep integration, making the migration wave a reality rather than a risk. Moving assets is no longer a leap of faith; it’s now a streamlined, industrialised, and predictable process.
If the efficiency of a modern tech stack appeals to you, let’s figure out if it’s the right fit for your business. Get in touch for an informal discovery chat.
Contact: dave.howard@wealthtechpros.com