Just Group has migrated a portfolio of its drawdown customers to the Embark platform to achieve better investment outcomes for its clients, it has said.
The provider said its decision to outsource its UK income drawdown service to Embark was to ensure its “business model remains economically attractive in a challenging regulatory environment”.
The migration was part of a long-term platform partnership between Hub Financial Solutions, the adviser subsidiary of Just, and Embark.
After moving to the Embark Platform Personal Pension, the clients’ assets will be invested in BlackRock’s MyMap fund range, which was launched earlier this year and is aimed at individuals who have a range of different risk appetites and financial goals.
Phil Smith, chief executive officer at Embark, said: “The Embark platform was able to offer the full range of retirement propositions required for Hub Financial Solutions customers, along with the technology and scale to support them in the longer term.
“Embark are continuously looking at new and innovative ways we can work with companies such as Hub Financial Solutions to deliver high quality services to their customers.”
David Cooper, chief executive officer at Hub, said: “To support Hub Group’s plans to extend the range of services we provide to our customers we needed to secure a long-term technology partner.
“After an extensive search we chose to partner with the team at Embark who provide an innovative and flexible platform and demonstrated a corporate culture and commitment to service consistent with our own.”
The Embark platform’s footprint has grown in the past few months.
In November the firm announced it had bought the Zurich platform just a month after it acquired the adviser platform business Alliance Trust Savings from Interactive Investor.
The purchases brought a combined £17bn of assets under management and about 160,000 clients onto the Embark platform, which now boasts a total Aum of more than £33bn for 300,000 clients.
Embark’s decision to purchase Zurich’s platform created a flurry of investment in the firm, with US fund giant Franklin Templeton announcing it had bought a “material stake” in the platform and Merian Chrysalis making a follow-on investment of £12.2m in the group, both at the end of November.
Just is currently in the process of making cost cuts to its business as part of its plan to achieve capital self-sufficiency by 2022.
At its annual general meeting in the summer (June 13) the company said despite already making its UK income drawdown and US care businesses more efficient, it would continue to make cuts to these areas.
amy.austin@ft.com
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