A whole raft of regulatory changes over the past two years has caused significant knock-on effects within the UK retail investment landscape. Separate and explicit payments for distribution, larger fund flows concentrated through fewer gatekeepers and a more structured approach to investment selection are making the retail market look more “institutional”.

Historically, retail investors paid a single "bundled" fund management charge, which included rebates that paid financial advisers and platforms. The Retail Distribution Review banned advisers from taking commission directly from products, leading to these rebates to be passed back to investors instead.