Aegon has announced its upgrade of the Cofunds platform is scheduled to take place over the May bank holiday weekend, and will be available for advisers to use on the following first working day, 8 May.
The company said it chose that date as it wished to avoid clients being impacted by the end of the tax year.
Aegon bought Cofunds in August 2016 for £140m, and subsequently announced that the Cofunds brand would disappear as it gradually integrated it into its Arc platform.
The company said the platform will be fully operational until 5pm on 4 May, then shut down for the bank holiday weekend before reopening on 8 May.
Aegon will be hoping to avoid the problems that have blighted the Aviva platform since its upgrade in mid-January, and Alliance Trust, which wrote down the value of its platform business in its most recent set of accounts.
As FTAdviser has previously reported, Aviva’s platform has been dogged by problems since it relaunched, with advisers left frustrated by long waiting times when they phone the company, and a lack of ability to produce client reports, among other issues which, despite repeated assurances from the company, advisers claim are still ongoing.
In a statement, Mark Till, Aegon’s chief distribution and marketing officer, thanked the "time and effort" given by the 30 adviser firms who have been closely involved in shaping the company's plans on the integration of Cofunds.
"We’re now in a position to combine the best of both the existing platforms [Arc and Cofunds], on Aegon’s technology. Advisers have received communications confirming the date and the benefits they can expect from the new service.”
David.Thorpe@ft.com
