Few parts of financial services touch as many stakeholders as platforms. Advisors, asset managers, custodians, and end clients all depend on them every day. Yet despite this central role, the sector has long been fragmented, with firms working in silos to solve challenges that are fundamentally industry-wide.
The creation of The Platforms Association marks a turning point: a collective commitment to collaborate at scale.
At AheadMG, we’re proud not only to be members but to play an active role in shaping the Association’s agenda. For us, it’s about helping deliver practical solutions to challenges that have frustrated platforms, advisers, and clients for far too long.
What is The Platforms Association?
The Platforms Association is the first trade body created specifically to represent the UK and European investment platforms sector.
Its mission is ambitious but essential: to give platforms a collective voice in dialogue with regulators, policymakers, and the wider financial services ecosystem.
The Association has already achieved scale and credibility. By May 2025, membership had grown to 60 firms, overseeing around £1.1 trillion in retail assets under administration. These include some of the industry’s most recognisable names; Fidelity, Aberdeen, Aegon, Quilter, SS&C, among others, underlining the confidence and momentum behind the initiative.
For a sector that has historically operated in silos, the Platforms Association represents a powerful step toward unity, collaboration, and progress.
Why now? The case for a unified voice
Platforms have been grappling with the same interconnected problems for years.
- Fragmented processes – too many firms reinventing the wheel.
- Best practices – not applied consistently across the sector.
- Transfers – still slow and inconsistent, leaving advisers and clients frustrated.
- Cybersecurity – a constantly shifting threat landscape that requires collective defences.
- Technology adoption – from AI to data standards, firms face pressure to modernise responsibly and consistently.
Individually, firms have made progress. But, with regulators demanding more, clients expecting better, and digital transformation accelerating, it is clear that no single platform can solve these challenges alone. What the sector has needed is a unified voice and a shared agenda.
That is what The Platforms Association provides, designed to deliver impact in three core ways:
- A unified voice – ensuring platforms are represented with regulators and policymakers.
- Shared solutions – enabling collaboration on technology, standards, and processes without crossing competitive lines.
- Raising the bar – developing voluntary standards around governance, ethics, and risk, helping the entire sector move forward together.
Early priorities and momentum
The Platforms Association has wasted no time in setting its agenda. Within months of launching, it brought together a diverse cross-section of firms, from global providers to specialist platforms, and began tackling some of the sector’s most pressing issues: transfers, artificial intelligence and data technologies, cyber security, financial crime, and operational resilience.
These early steps send a clear message: the Association is here to drive practical outcomes, not just policy discussions. And they directly align with the areas where AheadMG is contributing expertise.
AheadMG’s role in shaping the agenda
AheadMG brings deep expertise on transfers and cybersecurity. As experts in the industry’s leading platforms, we’ve seen these challenges up close and know how to turn strategy into delivery. That’s why we’ve taken an active role from the outset:
- Transfers – AheadMG’s Gary Clapham, recently appointed as Non-Executive Director, is part of the Transfers working group, working to accelerate automation and digitisation so transfers become faster, smoother, and less frustrating for advisers and clients alike.
- Cybersecurity – AheadMG Director Paul Noone is contributing to the Cybersecurity sub-group, helping to define sector-wide practices that strengthen resilience and protect clients in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
For us, this isn’t about simply having a seat at the table. It’s about applying our firsthand experience in transformation to challenges the industry has wrestled with for far too long and driving solutions that benefit the whole ecosystem.
Being part of The Platforms Association allows AheadMG to:
- Advocate for positive change on issues that impact advisers, clients, and providers across the sector.
- Stay at the forefront of industry change, contributing to the priorities that will shape the future of platforms.
- Champion automation and digitisation, particularly in critical processes like transfers.
- Collaborate with peers across platforms, custodians, and technology providers to deliver solutions no single firm could achieve alone.
Looking ahead: From momentum to long-term change
At AheadMG, our role in The Platforms Association reflects a broader commitment: helping financial services, wealth management, and insurance firms embrace digital transformation with confidence. We work with many of the industry’s leading platforms, applying our expertise in transfers, cybersecurity, and beyond to deliver solutions that create measurable impact.
You can learn more about how we support clients across the sector here.
