SLA confirms sale of Standard Life brand

Standard Life Aberdeen has confirmed that it is to sell the Standard Life brand to the Phoenix Group. The asset management giant sold its UK and European insurance business to Phoenix in 2018. Phoenix is to buy the Standard Life brand but investment and platform-related products will remain with Standard Life Aberdeen. Standard Life Aberdeen will also purchase the Wrap SIPP, Wrap Onshore Bond, and trustee investment plan businesses from Phoenix. These propositions predominantly comprise products sold via Standard Life Aberdeen's Wrap platform. As at 30 September 2020, these businesses had assets under administration of £27bn. The economic risk and reward in these businesses have transferred to Standard Life Aberdeen with effect from 1 January 2021 with the legal transfer to follow targeted for completion in late 2022. The current strategic asset management partnership between the companies, under which Standard Life Aberdeen currently manages £147.4bn of Phoenix assets, will be extended until 2031. Standard Life Aberdeen has also begun a branding review of all of its businesses. Around 60 staff from Standard Life Aberdeen will transfer to Phoenix at its operational headquarters in Edinburgh as the marketing, distribution and data team members supporting the Workplace and CS&I propositions. Rumours have been surrounding the Standard Life Aberdeen group selling off its 175-year-old Standard Life brand to Phoenix Group as the group looks to focus more on its asset management business. In a statement, Standard Life Aberdeen chief executive Stephen Bird said: “The Standard Life brand has an important heritage. In the UK, it has strong recognition as a life insurance and workplace pensions brand. This is closely aligned with Phoenix’s strategy and customer base. “This is much less the case with the business we are building at Standard Life Aberdeen which is focused on global asset management, our market-leading platforms offerings to UK financial advisers and their customers, and our UK savings and wealth businesses. That’s why I am excited about the work we are doing on our own brand, which we look forward to sharing later this year.” New chief executive Mr Bird has been reported to believe that the group is over-burdened with too many brand names following a number of mergers and acquisitions. Andy Briggs, CEO of Phoenix Group, said: "I am delighted that Phoenix now owns all of the Life and Pensions business of Standard Life, including the brand and all distribution and marketing, and we are committed to investing in this business. This will enable Phoenix to accelerate the delivery of a broader set of product and service propositions to meet the financial needs of our customers as they journey to and through retirement. This is therefore a key enabler of our open business growth strategy and will support the delivery of incremental new business long-term cash generation." Standard Life also recently announced it is set to sell one of its platform brands, Parmenion for up to £200m. In the platform sector alone, the group owns three brands: Standard Life Wrap, Elevate and Parmenion. Last year Standard Life Aberdeen reported sharp falls in revenue and profits, blaming the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and Lloyds Banking Group for pulling out £25bn of managed funds. Fee-based revenue in the first half to 30 June fell from £815m (H1 2019) to £706m – a drop of £109m. Pre-tax profit for the half year was £195m, down 30%.

SLA confirms sale of Standard Life brand

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