Standard Life To Buy Axa Elevate

Standard Life To Buy Axa Elevate.

Standard Life and Axa have both announced today that Axa plans to sell its Elevate trading platform to Standard Life.

What is a platform?

You have a selection of ISAs, pensions and investments on a platform i.e. in one place that then has access to a range of funds from many different investment companies.

For example, you may have an ISA on the Fidelity Funds Network platform that is invested in Legal & General Japan and Schroeder Smaller Companies and Prudential Managed funds.

Your management fees are made up of the platform fee, potentially a financial adviser fee and the fund managers fees.

What of Standard Life and Axa Elevate?

Axa appears to be selling off much of UK trading arms, indeed today they have also confirmed they are looking to sell off other elements of the its UK life, savings and investments businesses including the direct to consumer "Sun Life" operation, remember those "over 50's" television advertisements?

This move to sell the Elevate platform, appears a good move.  Standard Life already has its mark in the 'platform' area with its own Self Invested Personal Pension Plan platform and the arrival/merger of an savings based bond, investment and ISA platform is a good match for them to offer a complete service to investors.

Subject to regulatory approval, the sale is likely to complete in the final quarter of 2016.