Are platforms ready for the bond revival?

'This is the moment to challenge platform partners'

By David Simpson, Head of EMEA, GBST

After a period in the background of financial planning, onshore and offshore bonds have come back into sharper focus over the last couple of years, with tax being a key driver. Changes to capital gains tax (CGT), alongside the proposed inclusion of inherited pensions within inheritance tax (IHT) from April 2027, are reshaping wrapper selection across advice firms.

Data from The Lang Cat’s Analyser tool shows that onshore and offshore bonds are increasingly of interest to advisers. Among the top features advice firms consider during their platform due diligence, onshore and offshore bonds on-platform moved up two places in 2025 compared to 2024. Cuts to the CGT allowance and higher rates of tax on gains have made general investment accounts less competitive from a tax perspective, leading to bonds becoming more embedded in long-term tax and estate planning strategies.

The trend is also borne out by Canada Life UK research conducted with The Lang Cat, which found that among firms already recommending international bonds, two-thirds (66%) are doing so more often than five years ago, while almost three-quarters (71%) expect usage to increase over the next five years. In addition, 69% also anticipate greater use of trusts alongside bonds in the next five years.

However, while a significant number of platforms currently offer access to bonds, in many cases the administration is still handled off platform via links to external providers, rather than in-house. This can create friction for advisers and their clients, particularly where processes rely on fragmented legacy life systems or manual workarounds.

As volumes increase and planning becomes more complex, where bonds sit within the wider client proposition will become increasingly important. When bonds are administered alongside ISAs and SIPPs within the same operational framework, it reduces duplication, simplifies reporting and offers advisers a genuinely consolidated client view. It also creates more efficient administration for advice firms, enabling straight-through processing, API integration with back-office systems and digital identity verification to reduce manual intervention and operational risk.

Data from The Lang Cat’s Analyser tool highlights the challenge. In February 2026, of the 29 advised platforms covered, 24 offer offshore bonds and 15 onshore bonds. However, just ten and seven respectively provide full in-house administration.

Clearly, availability doesn’t necessarily equate to integration. Yet for many firms, platform administration is becoming more important. Research firm Platforum finds that most advice firms prefer to place bonds on platforms, for convenience and ease of client portfolio management, but estimates that around 40% of bond business is written off platform.

So what does good look like? At a minimum, bonds need to sit within the same architecture as other wrappers. That means a single customer view, common operational processes and consistent fee handling across pensions, ISAs and bonds.

In practical terms, this requires full bond functionality within the platform environment. Advisers need policy segmentation that allows assignments, maturities and withdrawals at segment level. Tax deferred withdrawals need to be handled clearly and chargeable event calculations should be straightforward, particularly at policy anniversaries or following deaths.

Trust flexibility is equally important. The ability to write bonds into trust at outset or assign them into trust later, across a range of trust types, allows bonds to function as a core estate planning tool rather than a peripheral solution.

For advice firms, this is the moment to challenge platform partners. If bonds are set to play a larger role in planning, platforms need to treat them as core architecture rather than bolt on distribution. That includes supporting a range of bond types and encashment options without reverting to manual processes behind the scenes.

There’s also a broader client experience dimension. Consolidated reporting, transparent fee treatment and the ability to view all wrappers in one place reinforce the value of holistic advice. As estate planning conversations deepen, that coherence becomes more visible and more valuable to clients.

The forthcoming taxation of inherited pensions has accelerated interest in bonds, but the implications go beyond tax planning alone. Simply adding access to bonds won’t be enough. If this is a structural shift in wrapper usage, platforms will need to respond at a structural level too. Advisers are looking for technology that supports complex planning without adding complexity to their businesses. The platforms that recognise that are the ones most likely to be ready for the bond revival.

David Simpson is GBST’s Head of EMEA, managing client activity and driving ongoing regional growth across the group’s retail wealth platforms. This article first appeared in Professional Adviser on 09/04/2026. You can read it here.

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