An 87% rise in platform sales on Elevate bring total platform assets under administration at the end of Q3 2011 to £3.1bn. Platform business represents 41% of all sales, up from 23% over the same period 2010.
AXA Wealth grew total assets under management from £16.7bn to £18.3bn. Total AXA Wealth sales grew to £2.8bn following strong results from not only its wrap platform, Elevate, but also Architas, AXA Wealth’s specialist investment company, with total assets up 33% to £8.7bn.
Additionally, funds under management for individual off-platform pension products grew from £4.4bn to £4.5bn and funds under management for Corporate Investment Services remain unchanged at £2.4bn.
Strong bancassurance partnerships with Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks and Britannia Building Society also helped grow volumes by 23% to £293m. In July, AXA Wealth won a new seven-year bancassurance contract to provide a new financial advice service to Co-operative bank’s five million retail banking customers. The new service goes live November 1 2011.
Sales of offshore bonds via its AXA Wealth International offshore businesses, based in both the Isle of Man and Dublin, were down 12% to £796m.
Results highlights:
– Elevate total sales up 87% to £1.13bn
– Bancassurance volumes up 23% to £293m in 2011
– Mutual Fund premiums up 59% to £770m
– In particular, ISA business up 95% to £452m
– Architas total assets up 33% to £8.7bn.
Mike Kellard, CEO, AXA Wealth, says: “Like other companies, the equity markets over the summer have had an impact on our overall assets, which would have been even higher if we had not experienced the market volatility. AXA Wealth is however still firmly on track to grow assets to £45bn by 2015, which it will do around a clear strategy built on the three pillars of platform, customer experience and specialist expertise.
Many wrap providers are behind the curve with regards platform usability, partly owing to them still having a hill to climb to get them RDR-ready. As AXA Wealth is already prepared for RDR, in 2012 we are able to focus on making make Elevate not only a comprehensive online business solution for advisers, with rich and ‘RDR-ready’ capability, but also a new platform user interface that is intuitive and simple to use.
“Improving the AXA Wealth’s overall customer experience is also key part of our strategy, to help set the company apart from other brands operating in its market. A new brand identity has been introduced across all media, which is designed to ensure that our customer communications are instinctive, consistent and easy to understand and navigate.
“Finally, a key USP to help fuel AXA Wealth’s growth next year is our recognised specialist expertise, in areas such as product innovation, with offers such as our Family Sun Trust group SIPP, and our consultancy support, in particular the new Professional Edge programme. This programme has moved the business away from a traditional sales approach over recent years. Our plan is to build on our people expertise, by continuing to develop talent from inside the company, and to attract, retain and nurture new people with imagination from within the wider industry and from outside.”
Source : Axa
