Aegon's pension and platform assets soar in 2015

Aegon saw its platform assets climb by £1.1bn in Q4b alone - a rise of 21%.

The growth offset lower earnings from life which fell from £77m to £58m in 2015, attributed to its decision to de-risk its investment portfolio under Solvency II.

Overall, the firm's annual earnings dropped slightly to £91m from £92m in 2014. Q4 earnings also fell 17% from £22m in Q4 2014 to £19m.

Chief Executive Adrian Grace has told advisers to prepare for an 'advice windfall' in 2016, as the pension freedoms and proposed tax relief changes provide a 'perfect storm'.

Adrian Grace said:

“Advisers are set to benefit from an advice windfall as market conditions build to deliver a pension perfect storm. The pension freedoms have provided a huge advice boost around income options, investment decisions and passing on wealth through the generations. Next month’s Budget could see significant changes to pensions tax relief, adding further demand for advice, particularly from higher rate tax payers looking to optimise their savings. Combined with one of the most volatile starts to the year in recent stock market history, the value of advice to balance security with flexibility has never been greater.”

On business performance, he added:

“Earnings proved consistent in the second half of the year and this is the second consecutive quarter in which we’ve delivered earnings of £19m. The strong performance has been achieved through higher earnings from pensions and as a result of lower costs combined with increasing customer numbers. These improvements more than offset lower earnings from life which resulted from our conscious decision to de-risk our investment portfolio under Solvency II.

“Our strategic goal is to continue to build the platform and we made good progress in Q4 adding £0.9bn of assets and additional 44,000 customers, with total numbers now over 240,000. The platform business is benefiting from the new pension freedoms with assets in advised drawdown up 88% year-on-year, as customers and their advisers took advantage of the reforms.