The head of UK retail sales at platform giant Aegon has left the firm after just over two years in the role.
The company confirmed to FTAdviser this morning that Andy Coleman, who was responsible for the distribution of the Aegon and Cofunds platforms since joining the company in 2017 has left.
Mr Coleman’s job title was managing director of UK retail.
FTAdviser understands there have been considerable outflows from the company’s products since its re-platforming in May last year. But Aegon’s most recent set of results did not break out the outflows for the UK operation.
Laura Barnes, a distribution director in the UK at the firm, and who also previously worked for Cofunds before it was acquired by Aegon in 2016, has also left the firm.
Ronnie Taylor, chief distribution officer at Aegon, said: “In recent months, Andy Coleman and I have been in discussions about his future.
"Andy had been determined to stay on and help us move our retail business into a better place. With the improvements we have been making and the plans in place for the future, Andy feels that now is the time he can move on with confidence that the business is in a strong place and pursue his plans outside of financial services."
Mr Taylor added: “We’re also entering a new phase for our platform business and I will be playing a more hands on role with clients as we press on with our plans to invest in their functionality and service in order to move towards our goal of being the best platform for advisers and their customers.”
The departures come as Aegon is investigating online service issues which are affecting its two retirement adviser accounts.
According to the provider, customers have been unable to log into its Aegon Retirement Choices and One Retirement adviser platforms.
This issue has now been ongoing for more than 24 hours.
Aegon has apologised to customers for the ongoing issues and said it was working to resolve them as quickly as possible.
An Aegon spokesperson said: “Some customers are currently experiencing access issues with Aegon Retirement Choices (ARC) and One Retirement online services.
“We’re making good progress and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Affected users have taken to Twitter to complain to Aegon that they have experienced problems for more than 48 hours and to ask when the issues are likely going to be fixed.
According to Aegon, the main issue with the platforms began yesterday and there were a couple of isolated customer questions about log ins prior to that but these were unrelated.
Aegon has suffered a number of issues with its main Aegon platform in recent years, particularly due to its replatforming exercise with the Cofunds platform.
Clients began to face wide-ranging problems after the botched replatforming exercise which started on the May bank holiday weekend with issues lasting for several months.
The company previously said it will compensate clients and suffered an extra cost of £3m in June 2018 as a result of attempting to resolve the issues faced by clients.
amy.austin@ft.com
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