Financial Results
Old Mutual Wealth Reports Strong Q1 Results; Says UK Pension Reforms Boosting Advice Demand

Old Mutual Wealth reported a solid set of Q1 results for 2015, saying recent UK pension reforms - giving people more freedom over their portfolios at a certain age - have buoyed financial advice demand.
Old Mutual
Wealth, the UK firm that is part of the listed firm Old
Mutual, said recent new UK freedoms in how people can manage
pension assets have helped drive up demand for financial
advice, adding to its performance in the first three months of
2015.
The firm said gross sales increased by 16 per cent to £4.6
billion in the first quarter from the same period last year.
Pension sales were “particularly strong”, it said. Net client
cash flow during the quarter was £1.0 billion, falling 9 per cent
from a year earlier. When the planned loss of a lower-margin
institutional mandate is taken into account, underlying
performance is 8 per cent up on a year ago.
Funds under management stood at £102.3 billion at the end of the
quarter, boosted by the acquisition of Quilter Cheviot, which was
completed during the period and added £17.5 billion to the total
figure. Excluding acquisitions and disposals, funds under
management increased 5 per cent from the year-end due to positive
net client cash flow and rising markets.
Demand for financial advice increased “significantly due to the
incoming pension reforms”, Old Mutual Wealth said. Pension and
annuity sales at Intrinsic rose by 23 per cent compared to the
first quarter of 2014.