Aegon have now confirmed they will end Cofunds as a separate platform in a move that was described as "inevitable" by advisers. Aegon acquired Cofunds for £140m in August 2016 and in an effort to "simplify" its offering to advisers it will abolish Cofunds as a separate platform and brand and move all clients to a new version of the Aegon platform.
A spokesman for Aegon said the technology upgrade it is implementing will integrate the two platforms by combining the best of both the Cofunds and Aegon services on its proven platform technology rather than building a new platform from scratch.
Cofunds users will move to the enhanced platform "in the coming months", said an Aegon spokesman, and adviser training on use of the new website will commence soon.
Mark Till, chief marketing officer at Aegon, said: "The integration of the Cofunds and Aegon platforms is progressing well and we're a few months away from users of Cofunds moving to the latest version of the Aegon platform which combines the best of both the existing services. In order to provide a consistent and unified service to advisers, it makes sense to brand the service simply as Aegon. Brand is about a lot more than just a name or a website colour scheme, it's about what you stand for as a business. Cofunds has a proud heritage as an investment business and Aegon in pensions. What we're creating is a business which builds on both specialisms and puts advisers and their clients front and centre in its thinking. Our focus is squarely on listening to the needs of the people who use our services in order to help them grow their business with better tools and processes that make their lives easier".
This comes as no surprise to us as Elson. We would have liked to have seen a longer transition period for our clients to get used to the idea. However, we will be in touch with all Elson clients who are currently on the Cofunds platform to inform them of all upcoming changes over the coming months.
Uploaded - 17 October 2017