Schroders has taken on the final chunk of £75bn of assets from Scottish Widows and Lloyds as part of its strategic partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.
The joint venture to create Schroders Personal Wealth, announced in October 2018, resulted in the migration of the insurance and wealth-related assets in seven tranches between September 2019 and March 2020.
More than 320 portfolios have moved over, including active equity, fixed income, multi manager, multi-asset, private equity and property funds.
Scottish Widows chief executive and group director of insurance and wealth Antonio Lorenzo described it as the “largest asset transfer in the UK”, adding it had been successfully completed on schedule despite tough environment as Covid-19 hit markets.
“Our partnership with Schroders will give our customers leading investment management expertise, a stable investment team and strong performance across multiple asset classes,” he added.
‘Monumental achievement’ in challenging conditions
Schroders group chief executive Peter Harrison (pictured) described taking on the mandate as a “monumental achievement” for Schroders.
“We are incredibly proud of the work done to achieve this milestone, which is the culmination of a year-long project by a dedicated team of Schroders colleagues, alongside Lloyds Banking Group and other key stakeholders,” he added. “It is all the more significant that this has been completed on time and on target, despite the challenging conditions of recent weeks due to the Covid-19 situation.”
Last month, Schroders revealed in its annual report that Schroders Personal Wealth attracted £12.6bn of client money in 2019.
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Schroders reported net flows of £43.4bn in 2019, £32bn of which was from the Scottish Widows book it received as part of the joint venture with Lloyds.
Flows resulting from the deal with Lloyds helped push Schroders’ total assets to £500bn, a nearly £100bn jump from the £407.2bn in AUM it had at the start of January 2019.
