Aegon’s retirement platform business has passed £3bn in assets under administration marker for the first time, driven by 115 per cent growth over the last 12 months.
Aegon claims this rate makes it the market’s fastest growing platform in percentage terms and it has taken just five months to grow from £2bn to £3bn.
The figure represents the combined assets on Aegon Retirement Choices and Workplace ARC, as well as the assets on One Retirement.
The provider’s platform asset growth reached 23 per cent in the second quarter of 2014, nearly 9 per cent greater than their nearest competitor, according to the latest data from consultancy The Platforum.
Duncan Jarrett, managing director for retail at Aegon, noted that Chartered Insurance Institute analysis found 80 per cent of the UK’s wealth is held by over 50s, so when the platform was built it was designed to service this wealthy demographic up to and through their retirement.
“While the scope and detail of last year’s Budget was a surprise for everyone in the industry, we’d already built our platform with this demographic in mind and believe it’s well placed to support them and their advisers in the coming months.”
Meanwhile, the ARC platform has benefitted from the introduction of simpler charges and the removal of product charges for those with invested assets of £250,000 or above.
Launched at the end of 2012, Aegon’s strategic focus moved to ARC at the start of 2013, with the platform hitting the £1bn mark in October 2013.
One Retirement is built on the same platform technology as ARC and assets on the service are now close to £600m.
peter.walker@ft.com
