Peter Mann is one of the big names in the retail financial services industry. He has been chief executive of Bankhall and Skandia UK, and has now stepped back from executive roles to follow a non-executive career.
The latest is his decision to chair the revamped Guardian Assurance brand, which has been relaunched with a sole focus on protection. But given his experience in financial services, there is one executive he has a lot of time for: Adrian Grace, the chief executive of Aegon UK.
He said: “Aegon is a superb business. Adrian is a wonderful guy who absolutely sees what Aegon needs to do. He has the vision to be able to see that Cofunds gives him scale and leverage, and the opportunity to do the BlackRock deal [when it bought BlackRock’s UK DC platform business].”
Aegon has been transforming itself over the past few years, from a conventional life office to a more platform, investment-focused operation. The company recently announced a management reshuffle following these acquisitions, but along the way there have been nearly 3,000 redundancies since Mr Grace arrived.
Mr Mann said: “I’m a big fan of Aegon. The purchase of Cofunds was entirely logical.”
The platform industry is undergoing its own change, with many platforms being bought up by larger companies amid predictions of waves of consolidation.
He said: “People have talked about it for a long time. What I see now is what I call sensible mergers and acquisitions. We’re not seeing consolidation as the businesses are going bankrupt – we will see more logical acquisitions as and when.”
Mr Mann speaks from a certain vantage point, having been in charge of one of the largest platforms for five years at Skandia, which has since been rebranded under the name of Old Mutual Wealth. But this company is undergoing its own changes, as Old Mutual Group breaks up and floats various parts, including Old Mutual Wealth. Does he think it will work?
Mr Mann said: “It’s a hugely well-capitalised business. Parents don’t want to keep digging their children out, and you don’t get listed on the London Stock Exchange unless you’re a well-capitalised and well-governed business. I have no fear in that regard.”
Mr Mann’s role at Guardian will be as non-executive chairman, running the board and ensuring that the business is well governed.
He said: “It’s impossible to say [how many days a week I will work]. What happens with a non-executive chairman’s position is that we are available to the business, but I’m the sort of person who likes to be involved. They needed to be clear that I would be fully engaged in the business.”
Guardian has been relaunched into the protection market, after being a closed life business for more than 10 years. The plan is to help people engage more easily with protection products that have broader definitions. It is a new company.
Mr Mann explained: “When you think about which brand is synonymous with the protection market, then the name Guardian was a trusted brand for a lot of people. If you can reinvigorate a trusted brand, it’s so much easier and resonates so much more with people, rather than [inventing] a trendy new name.
“It is a long-term commitment. This would typically be a minimum of three years; I would hope to stay a lot longer than that. When I ran a company like Bankhall or Skandia, when you run something of that scale, you get a whole lot of different experience.”
Over the years, Mr Mann has witnessed various restructuring of financial services businesses, including the project Old Mutual Wealth undertook to turn itself into an integrated business, buying financial adviser network Intrinsic and other wealth managers, as well as having a discretionary fund manager and fund management business.
Old Mutual is not alone: Standard Life Aberdeen is also trying it, although it has recently shed its insurance business but kept the financial advice division 1825, along with its more recent philosophy of being an investment house.
The trend has been considered controversial because of the potential conflicts of interest over having both in-house financial advisers and financial products.
Mr Mann is sanguine about the trend: “What I think is good is to have different operating models trying to achieve different objectives. If you take Aegon, what they’re trying to do is take their single platform and apply it to their wealth business – they integrate it in a different way.
“I’m a fan of any industry that has different business models. When I think of 1825, I think of one person only, I think of the client.”
He added that if the client is getting a decent service at a price that is suitable, then they are fine with that: “What I don’t like is people saying it’s wrong: it’s wrong for some people, it’s right for many others.”
Mr Mann’s other roles include non-executive director of Bravura Solutions, a software provider for platforms; chairman of Aim-listed consolidator Harwood; non-executive chairman of consulting business Tori Global; and non-executive director of the UK business of South African insurance firm Momentum.
“The regulator is keen that if you want to be a non-executive chairman, you should consider somewhere between four and five roles,” he said.
Melanie Tringham is features editor at Financial Adviser
Peter Mann’s career highlights
2014 – present: Various chairman and non-executive director roles
2012 – 2014: Vice-chairman, Old Mutual Wealth
2007 – 2012: Chief executive, Skandia UK
2002 – 2007: Chief executive, Bankhall
1996 – 2002: Distribution leadership roles, Scottish Amicable/Prudential
