Royal London-owned wrap Ascentric had its best ever quarter with its highest ever inflow of new assets, an three-fold increase in new adviser firms using the platform and total assets under administration jumping to almost £6bn in the first three months of this year.
Late last year the business broke the £5bn assets mark, but a surge in inflows in the first quarter has pushed this up to £5.9bn.
The strong performance is detailed in interim results for parent company Royal London, which reveal that the life, pensions and investment giant’s total new life and pensions business increased 22 per cent to £929m in Q1.
Scottish Life’s new business is up 29 per cent to £698m, while Caledonian Life new business is up 30 per cent at £10m and Royal London 360°’s new business is unchanged at £90m. Rlam saw net new business inflows of £224m in Q1.
Phil Loney, group chief executive at Royal London, said: “Our pensions business has experienced significant growth. We expect further growth in group pensions as our high quality offerings and service continue to prove extremely popular with advisers in the post RDR market.
“Rlam has experienced good net inflows after some large cyclical outflows in the same period in 2012. The levels are almost double the amount which we received in the equivalent period in 2011 which further highlights the strong position and excellent reputation the business has in its markets.”
On Ascentric, Mr Loney said: “The business is profitable, very popular with advisers and, following further significant investment in its service capability, is well placed for growth throughout 2013.”
In addition, he highlighted that Royal London’s EGM takes place on 4 June which gives its members the opportunity to approve its acquisition of the life insurance and asset management businesses from the Co-operative Banking Group.
Mr Loney said: “The strong capital position that we have built up over recent years has enabled us to make this acquisition for the benefit of our members. Full details of our proposals were recently issued to our members.
“This acquisition will add significant value to their membership and, in increasing our customer base by 2m people and our assets by £20bn, is a truly exciting opportunity for the Royal London business and one which I wholly commend to them”.
