AXA Wealth announces its full year 2012 financial results, with significant growth on its Elevate platform where assets are up 51% from £3.5bn to £5.3bn. Assets also increased for Architas, AXA Wealth’s specialist investment company, rising 20% from £9.4bn to £11.3bn. This growth helped increase AXA Wealth’s overall assets under management (‘AUM’) from £18.9bn to £21.6bn over the same period.
Overall AXA Wealth sales totalled £3.3bn. These results follow a year that has been focused on ensuring AXA Wealth builds one of the most RDR-ready and adviser-friendly wealth propositions in the market. This includes the flexible and functionality-rich Elevate wrap platform. It also includes a strong proposition for those clients or advisers who do not require a wrap platform but still want access to individual products like onshore and offshore bonds, SIPPs and pensions post-RDR, which are accessed through AXA Wealth’s specialist products business.
Elevate
Assets have grown to £5.3bn, up 51% from this time last year. Total sales for Elevate rose by 17% to £1.7bn, with 51% of AXA Wealth business being placed on this platform. Elevate announced a new pricing structure in December, which provides a highly competitive tiered approach, focused on clarity, simplicity and transparency.
Specialist individual products (SIPP, pension, onshore and offshore bonds outside wrap)
Assets under management across our specialist individual products grew modestly reflecting continuing market uncertainty in these sectors.
• Offshore funds under management grew by 7% from £7.8bn at the end of 2011 to £8.3bn at the end of 2012.
• Pensions and onshore bonds assets under management grew by 3% from £5.2bn to £5.3bn.
Architas
With £11.3bn of assets, Architas introduced clean share classes in preparation for the RDR, which added to its already broad offering of three multi-asset fund ranges: passive, active and blended. During 2012, strong investment performance saw inflows across both active and passive offerings, with particularly strong growth in the multi-asset passive fund range.
Corporate investment services
Assets under management for the corporate investment services business rose 18% to £2.9bn, offering an innovative investment approach through partnerships with employee benefits consultants and joint venture partners.
Mike Kellard, chief executive officer, AXA Wealth, commented: “The AXA Wealth business was structured with the RDR in mind, with both our wrap business through Elevate, and specialist individual products business, built on a tailored model to support different customer groups. This approach is to ensure we offer strong service to our advisers with genuine focus, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach allowing advisers to choose which clients are suited to a wrap account and which just need a particular tax wrapper in order to accommodate this flexibility.
“At a time when many businesses have not been able to facilitate adviser charging, AXA Wealth has invested in its entire product range, including both the wrap platform and individual products like the onshore and offshore bond, SIPP and individual pension, to ensure they are fully RDR-ready. In fact, we are one of a very small number of companies that are able to offer adviser charging as an option across both our wrap platform and our individual products.
“In the run up to the RDR, we listened to advisers who were saying they wanted an investment solution for clients who may not require the full advice service. Built on the Elevate platform, we therefore launched AXA Self Investor to support their requirements. We launched in the summer, and have just announced a new competitive pricing structure this month. I believe services such as AXA Self Investor will become an important part of an adviser’s offer, with self-directed investment having grown by 29% in the 12 months to 30 September 2012.*
“While of course there is still uncertainty ahead, I think we will be in a strong position to support advisers in this new RDR world.”
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