Aviva has said it will work with Succession Wealth following its purchase of the firm on a plan for how its platforms will operate.
Speaking to FTAdviser today (March 2), Doug Brown, chief executive officer of UK & Ireland Life at Aviva, said there will be no changes to the way Succession Wealth runs on day one but discussions will be had later.
Aviva announced this morning it had purchased national IFA Succession Wealth in a deal worth up to £385mn, subject to regulatory approval.
Brown said: “Nothing changes initially for Succession Wealth - they continue to do the business as they currently do.
"They do have their own platform. We obviously also have our platform which we think is extremely strong, evidenced by today's results. We have other strong offerings, but nothing changes for them on day one, and they'll continue to operate as they do today.
“We think we have a strong offering across our platform and asset management capabilities and other things and so we will work with Succession Wealth to figure out what is the best proposition for their customers and advisers.”
Succession Wealth uses a white-label version of the Ascentric platform, which was bought by M&G from Royal London in 2020, bringing £14bn in assets and 1,500 adviser customers.
Meanwhile, Aviva uses an advised platform, powered by FNZ, which holds clients' investments and targets mid-market to high net worth retail customers who pay for advice and invest their money, and it houses both an investment range and product wrappers.
In a stock market update, Aviva said the Succession deal “significantly enhances” its presence in the wealth market as more people seek advice for their retirement and savings options.
Aviva Financial Advice versus Succession Wealth
Last year, Aviva told FTAdviser it would launch a simplified advice pilot which will be a low-cost digital version of Aviva Financial Advice.
The FTSE 100 firm said it planned to launch a pilot which would be a simpler, digitised model at a low cost point, to help clients decide whether they are in the right funds and whether they should consolidate pensions.
However, in January, Aviva Financial Advice said it was finalising the outline of its simplified advice pilot and expects to launch in the first quarter of this year, following a slight delay.
Brown said Aviva Financial Advice will operate alongside Succession Wealth to complement one another.
“As we engage with our customers, different customers have different needs. Some may want to engage with us directly, some may want to engage with us with more simplified, hybrid advice and some may want more holistic financial planning,” he said.
“The way that we see it is that clearly the AFA business is really suited to customers with simpler advice needs with perhaps smaller pot sizes and so forth, whereas, Succession Wealth can sit alongside that, so there is something that can really appeal to the mass affluent, high net worth customers, and those that have a little bit more sophisticated requirements.”
