Aegon reports £1bn Q2 inflows

News of the swelling of assets on the platform to £4.6bn came in the firm’s Q2 2015 results, published this morning, which cited a combination of new money and “upgrading” existing customers onto the offering as catalysts.

The average policy size on-platform is around £72,000, “more than double” the average for the traditional book of pensions and bonds, it adds.

The boost in assets follows a tripling of flows in the first three months of the year, with £305m of flows in March 2014, when assets reached £968m.

At Aegon generally fee revenues were £111m during the period, down 2 per cent on Q2 2014, although fee revenues on the platform were up 56 per cent in Q2 2015 compared to the previous quarter.

Aegon’s UK operation saw year-on-year pre-tax earnings drop 4 per cent in the second quarter this year, from £26m to £25m, as new life sales plummeted 16 per cent.

The results show new life business dropped from £226m to £190m, driven by “lower traditional pension production”. Annuity sales across the sector have been hammered following the introduction of pension freedoms in April.

The firm has warned of “continued pressure” on pension earnings resulting from the automatic enrolment charge cap and the new retirement flexibilities but said earnings from its life business were “stable” during the period at £20m, and while pensions were at £4m.

A statement issued with the results said: “The pension flexibility regulation that came into effect in April 2015, resulted in higher outflows from Aegon’s back-book in the second quarter of 2015. Aegon expects this trend to continue in the second half of 2015.”