Aegon bosses today (11 October) confirmed they will end Cofunds as a separate platform in a move that was described as "inevitable" by advisers.
Aegon acquired Cofunds for £140m in August 2016.
This morning (11 October) Aegon announced that in an effort to “simplify” its offering to advisers it will abolish Cofunds as a separate platform and brand and move all clients to a new version of the Aegon platform.
A spokesman for Aegon said the technology upgrade it is implementing will integrate the two platforms by combining the best of both the Cofunds and Aegon services on its proven platform technology rather than building a new platform from scratch.
Cofunds users will move to the enhanced platform “in the coming months”, said an Aegon spokesman, and adviser training on use of the new website will commence soon.
Mark Till, chief marketing officer at Aegon, said: "The integration of the Cofunds and Aegon platforms is progressing well and we’re a few months away from users of Cofunds moving to the latest version of the Aegon platform, which combines the best of both the existing services.
“The project to integrate the two businesses is entering a new phase now as we begin training advisers to use the platform.
"As we integrate our business, we will eventually offer the same technology and service to all our customers.
"In order to provide a consistent and unified service to advisers, it makes sense to brand the service simply as Aegon.
"Brand is about a lot more than just a name or a website colour scheme, it’s about what you stand for as a business.
"Cofunds has a proud heritage as an investment business and Aegon in pensions. What we’re creating is a business which builds on both specialisms and puts advisers and their clients front and centre in its thinking.
"Our focus is squarely on listening to the needs of the people who use our services in order to help them grow their business with better tools and processes that make their lives easier.”
Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services and a Cofunds customer, said: "It's a bit disappointing that the Cofunds brand is going to disappear but given Aegon's long term plans in the platform arena, it is no real surprise.
"Brand is important, but for a utility (such as a platform) it is not super-important for clients."
Ian Lowes, who runs Lowes Financial Management, which has about £400m of assets on the Cofunds platform, said he has been watching with interest how the integration of Cofunds and Aegon is developing.
He said: “From Lowes Financial Management’s perspective, having been utilising the proposition since inception, Cofunds has significantly greater brand recognition with our clients than Aegon does.
"The dropping of the Cofunds name is however accepted as an inevitable, albeit unwelcome change.”
FTAdviser first reported that Aegon was a potential buyer of Cofunds back in February, and several market commentators heralded the move as “game-changing”.
L&G purchased Cofunds for a cash consideration of £131m back in March 2013.
According to the L&G, Cofunds was hit by outflows of £700m during the first six months of 2016.
The sell-off included the Investor Portfolio Service platform, as well as Cofunds’ retail and institutional business.
At the time of announcing the deal Aegon revealed it expected to generate a yearly cost saving of £60m across its UK business by buying Cofunds.
david.thorpe@ft.com
