16 May 2019 Aviva on road to recovery
Fundscape's analysis of platform performance in the first quarter of 2019 should make for encouraging reading for AJ Bell, Aviva and Transact, but some of the chasing pack appears stagnant....
// Standard Life
14 May 2019 Nucleus launches portal as investors seek direct access to portfolios
Nucleus Go provides access to information such as money paid in, withdrawals, fund switches, holdings, gains and losses, as well as more detailed investment analysis over...
13 May 2019 Poor start to 2019 for platforms
THERE MAY BE PROBLEMS AHEAD… By the end of March 2019, stock markets had recovered from the severe whipping they’d received in the last quarter of 2018. All major markets were home to stellar growth, with even the FTSE All Share rising by 8.3% despite Brexit concerns. The upturn pushed UK platform assets up 7.3% to £637bn, a vast improvement on Q418, but only £4bn higher than Q318’s closing balance of £633bn. Hargreaves Lansdown, D2C platform and the UK’s largest distributor, moved into pole position as the UK’s largest investment platform.
01 Apr 2019 Slashed bonuses could hit Standard Life
Standard Life Aberdeen could face depressed morale on the shop floor as it reportedly slashes bonuses – a potential shock to the system for asset management staff who had become accustomed to...
19 Mar 2019 Was platform dominance broken in 2018?
2018 was a tough year for the adviser platform sector as a whole but, amid the general suffering, are net-flow figures suggesting a shift in the balance of power among the most popular players?...
19 Mar 2019 Brexit, brinkmanship and pensions
It’s been a tough year for fund groups and platforms alike with Brexit and other worries cooling the markets. Initially, platforms were cushioned from the worst by ongoing DB transfer business, but by the second half of the year that business was also drying up. Year-on-year asset growth was a meagre 4%, while gross and net sales have plummeted. The economics are relatively unchanged, but investors have been spooked by Brexit and US-China trade wars. For full press release click here.
13 Mar 2019 ‘A dumb idea from the off’: Standard Life Aberdeen drops co-CEOs
Standard Life Aberdeen’s decision to scrap its co-CEO structure has been hailed as a long-overdue, inevitable decision for the firm but also the end of an era for Aberdeen boss Martin Gilbert who defied...
07 Mar 2019 Are Aviva’s platform flows as bad as they look?
Aviva's net platform flows were revealed to be 38% down year-on-year in the group's annual results this morning. Yet, after a slow 2018 in the platform market, are the group's troubles as bad as...
08 Feb 2019 Quilter eyes decumulation
20 Aug 2018 Sluggish ISA sales and soft Q218 for platforms
After significant falls in Q1, stock markets began to level out at the end of March... just in time for the last two weeks of the ISA season. By the close of Q218, the UK stock market had recovered most of its lost ground, with the FTSE 100 and FTSE All Share rebounding by 8% and performing better than most major stock markets in Q2.SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER
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