Standard Life Aberdeen is integrating its direct sales force division Private Client Management (PCM) with its financial advice firm 1825.
PCM, a restricted advice business which only offers advice in Standard Life products and is primarily a telephone service, has £900m in assets under administration and has been under management of 1825’s CEO, Steve Murray, for approximately a year and a half. Murray, however, will be replaced as chief executive by Julie Scott.
The merger should be finalised in the final quarter of this year, with PCM adopting both the 1825 brand and client proposition. This means that PCM will no longer be a Standard Life restricted model, although it will remain a predominantly telephone-based service.
1825’s national advice manager, Colin Dyer, spoke about the integration: “It will be a very significant change. Any new client coming to us we would look at everything they have got, get a firm understanding of what they are trying to achieve and sometimes the best advice would be the way they are set up now is spot on.
“‘The main dependency on PCM being able to complete this step into 1825 is us changing the technology we run. So we will be changing our back office technology and we have been working on that over recent months and have had some good success so far.”
Notably, 1825 made a £7m pre-tax loss for the 16 months to December. Dyer has stated that it makes “strategic sense”, therefore, to combine the two firms. However, he has commented that the losses were “not the main drivers” for the integration.
Dyer also said that due to the “colossal overlap” between the services provided by PCM and 1825, he does not anticipate cultural differences between the firms, who hold different restricted statuses, being an issue in the merger.
For more information on the M&A market and specifically selling your business to 1825, contact Gwill Evans – Gwill.Evans@gunnerandco.com
