Aegon’s UK retirement platform continued its fast growth, reaching £2.7bn in assets under administration and with inflows of £300m in the final three months of 2014, as the firm commited to working with advisers to using the non-advised services with smaller pot clients.
Adrian Grace, chief executive of Aegon UK, said he is looking to work with advisers to make the Retiready non-advised digital platform available to those customers in need of a cost effective alternative to full advice.
Ahead of the new pension flexibilities in April, drawdown inflows on the platform in the fourth quarter were up 40 per cent year-on-year.
Mr Grace said that the first stage of proposition plans for retiring customers and their advisers looking to take advantage of the pension reforms will start to be delivered in the next couple of weeks.
“Our full retirement income suite, including providing pension freedom options for existing customers, will be rolled out during the course of the year to support the pension reforms.”
He added that the group will also shortly be announcing developments to support employers and employees that will enhance the ability of advisers to provide “high value advice services” to key employees when they want and need them.
Aegon’s underlying earnings before tax were up 37 per cent to £22m, due to “improved persistency” on the fourth quarter of 2013.
On the wider pensions piece, 300 new auto-enrolment schemes were added in the last three months of last year, compared to 97 in Q3 - adding to the 49,000 new customers acquired in the last quarter of the year.
Protection volumes also increased by 25 per cent relative to Q4 2013 - driven by the launch of a new whole of life product - while business was also up 20 per cent over the full year.
peter.walker@ft.com
