Aegon

Aegon is a provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management. It started out as Scottish Equitable in 1831 and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Aegon NV, a multi-national life insurance, pension and asset management company that is based in The Hague, Netherlands. Aegon NV purchased a 40 per cent stake Scottish Equitable in 1994, increasing this stake to 100 per cent by 1998. In 2006 Scottish Equitable plc was rebranded as Aegon Scottish Equitable, becoming Aegon in 2009. More recently, it has shifted its focus onto the advised platform market.

Cofunds, a UK-based investment administration service previously owned by Legal & General, became part of Aegon in 1 January 2017, with the transfer of 79,000 Cofunds customers onto a combined platform being completed in January 2018. In November 2017, Money Marketing reported that Cofunds was the cheapest platform for £100,000 portfolios at 0.29 per cent. In August 2017, the combined Aegon and Cofunds platform had more than £100bn-worth of assets on board and this figure had risen to £117bn by the end of 2017. Aegon chose to drop the Cofunds brand name and announced plans to close a Cofunds office in Hove in September 2017.

The acquisition of Cofunds was presaged on a shift towards platforms by Aegon. In November 2016, Money Marketing reported that Aegon was looking to generate between 80 and 90 per cent of its profits from its platform business within the next three to five years. Aegon UK chief executive Adrian Grace said: “We have been really clear we want to be out of annuities and into platforms…That’s a big shift from where we were in the business only a short time ago.”

In May 2016, Aegon acquired BlackRock’s defined contribution platform and administration business for an undisclosed sum, acquiring around £12bn of assets and 350,00 customers.

In February 2018, it was announced that Aegon’s chief distribution and marketing officer, Mark Till, was taking over the role of managing director for Aegon Digital Solutions, to oversee the platform’s workplace and protection businesses as the company continued its move to a digital restructure. In the same month, it was also reported that Aegon was reviewing the future of its direct-to-consumer platform Retiready, as it cemented its focus on the advised platform market.