Aegon will start moving Cofunds advisers onto their new platform in May, the company has announced.
This is later than originally planned but comes after Aegon consulted with advisers on the migration process.
Mark Till, the company’s chief distribution and marketing officer, had originally planned to move the Cofunds advisers across early next year but said he had been told advisers would prefer to wait until the tax year was over.
He said: “Our focus throughout this project has been to listen to the views of those using these services and a consensus has emerged that most advisers would prefer to start using the enhanced platform once the busy tax year end period is out of the way and once Mifid II has settled in to their businesses.
“We’ve taken this feedback on board and will begin the process of upgrading the platform for existing users early in the new tax year.”
But he said the platform is ready to use and Aegon will soft launch it in January with a small number of Cofunds firms for new business only.
In the meantime the 75,000 non-advised customers using the Investor Portfolio Service will move onto Aegon next month.
Mr Till said Aegon will be improving its Arc platform over the course of the next two months, providing existing users with benefits available to Cofunds users, such as natural income options and pre-funding.
He said earlier this year that users of the new platform will be able to personalise it to suit their needs to a much greater extent than currently possible.
Aegon agreed to buy Cofunds in August 2016 in a £140m deal which ended months of speculation about the future of the platform.
Earlier this month Aegon confirmed it would kill off the Cofunds brand to simplify its offering to advisers.
damian.fantato@ft.com
