Legal & General, the UK-listed insurance and investment group, and Cofunds, the fund platform company, said today that L&G has completed its previously announced acquisition of Cofunds.

“The transition to the new ownership was quick and smooth thanks to Cofunds Business Unit's chief executive, Chris Last, working closely with the Cofunds management team and outgoing Cofunds CEO Martin Davis,” both firms said in a statement today.

Cofunds chairman, Charlie Eppinger, will step down with immediate effect. Charlie Eppinger, who was the driving force in negotiating the sale and has been with Cofunds for over 10 years, is retiring from the Cofunds board, the statement said.

The deal comes at a time when the investment and wealth management industry in the UK has seen one of the largest regulatory changes in recent years from the Retail Distribution Review programme of reforms, which kicked in at the start of 2013.

“We’ve a strong and experienced executive team in place which is single minded in its focus on the job in hand, namely supporting the RDR and platform needs of Cofunds’ clients. I’m particularly pleased to be taking the helm of a company with such an abundance of talent and expertise as it means we can harness that talent for the benefit of all our clients. We’ve ambitious plans for the platform and this is an exciting time to be putting those plans in place,” Last said.