Insurance company Aviva has completed the purchase of UK-based advice firm Succession Wealth.
The deal was first announced in March 2022 where the insurer agreed to buy the company for a consideration of £385m ($465m, €456m).
This came after reports that Succession’s private equity owner Inflexion had put it up for sale in November 2021.
The insurer says the acquisition “significantly enhances” its presence in the “fast-growing UK wealth market and expands Aviva’s ability to offer high-quality financial advice to a significant number of its six million pension and savings customers without an existing adviser”.
Aviva had already expanded its advisory offering in May 2021 with the addition of an investment advice proposition to customers of Aviva Financial Advice.
Exiting life markets
The UK wealth and advice push follows a mass sale of Aviva’s life operations in several European and Asian countries in 2020 and 2021.
In December 2020, it sold its Vietnamese life arm to Manulife for an undisclosed sum.
Shortly after, in February 2021, it shed its 40% stake in its Turkish joint venture AvivaSA Emeklilik ve Hayat AS to Ageas Insurance International for a cash consideration of £122m.
Aviva then shifted the focus to its European arms. In March 2021, the insurer’s Poland operation was sold for €2.5bn (£2.1bn, $2.6bn) to Allianz.
In the same two months, it also agreed to sell its French division to Aéma Groupe for €3.2bn and its Italian life arm CNP Assurances for €543m and general insurance business to Allianz for €330m.
At the time, chief executive Amanda Blanc said the deals “greatly simplify” Aviva’s structure as the company wanted to focus on its core business in the UK, Ireland and Canada.
