Discretionary MPS assets have reached £208 billion, growing 32% in a year.
According to NextWealth’s 2026 MPS Asset Update report, assets grew by £50 billion to £208 billion in the 12 months to the end of Q1 2026, with £18 billion added in the past six months – a period in which financial markets were broadly flat.
NextWealth said the discretionary MPS market continues to grow at a much faster rate than the broader platform market, with growth of 9% over the past six months compared to 3%.
For the first time, the report analysed the relationship between total cost and asset growth. Of the 52 DFMs evaluated, NextWealth found that firms with an average total cost below 50 bps grew assets by an average of 30% over the past 12 months, while firms charging more than 50 bps grew by 20% during the same period.
Heather Hopkins, founder and CEO of NextWealth, said: “Price isn’t the only driver. Active portfolios have managed to maintain their market share and their pricing. Active portfolios make up more than one third of assets in MPS and the total cost for hybrid and passive portfolios has fallen roughly three times faster than for active in the past two years.
“Price is important but DFMs continue to differentiate on service and performance, as well as price.”
The report showed Quilter Wealth Select continues to dominate discretionary MPS net asset growth, with 34% growth over the past year. Tatton, which remains in second place in terms of total MPS assets made the top 10 net asset growth despite de-linking £3.7 billion of Perspective Group assets.
In addition, the report also found that the majority of MPS providers are focusing on strategic partnerships to embed and grow their market share. Among firms offering co-branding, Tatton and Pacific are the largest by assets.
Meanwhile, among DFMs offering tailored models, LGT ranks largest for assets with more than double the AUM of the next largest.
Hopkins added: “Partnerships have become a vibrant part of the market representing a viable approach to building relatively secure assets quickly. In a competitive market, new entrants realise that they need to identify and build key partnerships to gain momentum. Simply offering a broadbrush proposition is a challenging route to success.”
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