Platforms

Skandia will switch to its unbundled platform pricing model on Tuesday 18 December - two weeks before the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) deadline.

Old Mutual Wealth is planning to turn around its Skandia platform by halving costs as a proportion of FUM after the business made a £5m loss in the first half of 2012.

AXA Elevate is to lower the discount it offers to users who buy the group's own Architas fund range in 2013.

Standard Life's Global Absolute Return Strategies fund has dropped out of the top ten highest inflows on Fidelity FundsNetwork, according to data from the platform.

Fidelity has appointed head of platform operations Pat Shea to run its FundsNetwork platform.

Assets on Royal London's wrap platform Ascentric grew 42% to £4.7bn in the nine months to 30 September, with new inflows dropping 18% to £856m.

Raymond James has become the first platform to distribute Hermes' UCITs fund range.

The technology firm behind the Cofunds platform is in talks to run a full platform service for the company, Investment Week's sister title IFAonline understands.

Platform giant Skandia's sales force is understood to be facing a significant reduction in numbers after the group - now known as Old Mutual Wealth - revealed there will be 200 jobs lost across the business.

Cofunds is planning to target life companies failing to attain traction in the platform market.