Standard Life has won 76 new workplace pension schemes over the last year, helping boost profits at its parent company Phoenix Group.
Phoenix’s annual report and accounts revealed it has been buoyant year for Standard Life, helping to turn around the fortunes of the workplace pension provider, where growth had stalled after its previous merger with Aberdeen Asset Management.
These 76 new workplace schemes have an aggregate asset value of around £2bn which will transfer across to Standard Life in the next 12 to to 24 months.
In total the net fund flows into Standard Life’s workplace business for 2022 stood at £2.4bn, compared to £0.2bn in 2021. It also reported a 53 per cent increase in the company’s incremental new business long-term cash generation to £212m, up from £139m the year before.
Standard Life’s workplace business has now transferred around £15bn of assets into its sustainable multi-asset default fund, as the company looks to decarbonise its investment portfolios at scale. There are now 1.5m members in this new default proposition.
Standard Life’s has also seen steady performance in its bulk purchase annuity business, which it said has generated a broadly stable level of incremental new business long-term cash generation, but with 20 per cent less capital invested.
Across its entire business Standard Life has seen £1,233m of incremental new business long-term cash generation, compared to £1,184m in 2021.
Standard Life CEO Andy Curran says: “2022 was a fantastic year for Standard Life. With the continued momentum in our Workplace pensions business delivering £2.4bn of net inflows and 76 new schemes won last year. The performance reflects the ongoing investment in both the business and proposition, we are now winning some of the largest workplace schemes coming to market.
“With £4.8bn of bulk purchase annuity premiums in 2022, we are helping companies looking to de-risk their defined benefit pensions and secure the benefits of thousands of members. This ability to support both modern auto-enrolment schemes and de-risking of older style defined benefit pension as well as the wider retail savings market means we are aligned to a number of huge growth markets.”
He added that evidence to date suggests very customers were cutting back on pension contributions, despite the strains put on many household budgets over the last 12 months. Curran adds: “More than ever customers are looking to us to understand the challenges they face, with issues like securing an income from their savings or managing their investments.
“The current challenges place an additional emphasis on the industry to better support people to make sense of their finances and give them more personal information as well as facilitating access to advice.”