CompaniesOct 30 2013

Standard Life wrap adviser numbers up 20%

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The number of advisers using the Standard Life wrap platform has grown 20 per cent in the first nine months of 2013.

According to Standard Life’s interim results published today, (30 October), a total of 5,056 advisers were using its wrap platform at the end of the third quarter of 2013, up from 4,206 at the end of 2012.

Fee-based revenue for the company increased 15 per cent to £1.06bn in the first nine months of this year, up from £923m in 2012.

Meanwhile, group assets under administration increased 9 per cent to £237.6bn, up from £218.1bn for all of 2012 and £211.9bn from Q3 2012.

Auto-enrolment contributed to a 53 per cent increase in the value of new corporate premiums.

Net inflows in the third quarter into Standard Life’s UK retail new propositions increased by 35 per cent while net inflows into UK corporate pensions increased by 29 per cent.

The company noted that these inflows were somewhat offset by an increase in gross outflows from Standard Life Investments’ institutional pensions business of £900m.

However, the company added that although this figure is reported both within the UK long-term savings and SLI net flows, it does not affect the profitability of the UK business.

Paul Matthews, chief executive for UK and Europe for Standard Life, said: “We were well prepared for the regulatory changes introduced over the past year and we are continuing to take advantage of the opportunities they have created.

“We have added 195,000 new customers to our corporate business since the start of the year and we now look after 1.4m employees. We have a strong pipeline of secured new corporate pension business and we have been developing our proposition to support the thousands of small and medium-sized businesses who will be implementing auto enrolment during 2014.

“Our retail business has also built on the momentum we saw in the first half of the year with increasing demand for our investment solutions, including MyFolio funds which saw net inflows up 29 per cent.

“We are also now dealing with an additional 546 adviser firms with whom we have not dealt with before or for several years. We are excited about the future and confident we can continue to deliver for our customers and shareholders.”