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Earlier this week, I joined the abrdn executive team in London to present our full year results 2021 to the market.

While investors and market analysts take a keen interest in our company performance, I know that advisers are also keen to understand the financial strength of the partner you have chosen for your clients’ investments.

Overall, we were pleased to be able to report strong progress delivering on our strategy. Stephen Bird, CEO, abrdn plc, hailed 2021 as our reset year, one which saw us become abrdn and set out a clear strategy for long-term, sustainable, client-led growth.

Our vision for our partnerships with advisers

abrdn maintained a no.1 position for AUA and gross flows in the UK adviser market in 2021 demonstrating the strategic importance of Wrap and Elevate to the group. We never take success for granted and I believe that just as advisers build their business on the goals of their clients, we build our business on the ambition of the advisers we partner with.

Our vision for the partnerships we develop with advisers is about helping you to become the business you want to be and to deliver more to the clients you want to serve. This vision is based on three things:

Doing business your way

We’ll build technology and investment solutions around the needs of your clients and design user experiences around the needs of your business.

Last year we responded to the growing threat that your business and your clients faced from cybercriminals following the increase in email communication to stay in contact remotely. We reacted quickly by implementing Unipass Mailock encryption technology, enabling you to communicate sensitive information securely and efficiently.

Making things easier

We’re offering an increasing number of self-serve solutions, along with live support to simplify the way we work together and to give you back more time to focus on your clients.

For example, we are one of the only UK platform businesses to have an e-signature solution that is fully integrated with the platform allowing you to capture clients’ signatures online quickly and securely, with automatic upload to the client document library.

Putting our strength to work for you

We support you to look after your clients’ investments and data securely, while providing you with expert insights to make well-informed decisions in areas ranging from regulation to taxation.

We also invest heavily in enhancing our capabilities to improve the experience you have of working with us. We’re already seeing the benefits of having adopted world-class technology platforms, Amazon Connect and Salesforce Service Cloud, to connect you to our experts faster and ensure our team delivers an even more responsive service.

Supporting your due diligence

Assessing the strength and scale of a partner and having confidence in their commitment to market and ability to continually invest in solutions is a critical part of your ongoing due diligence. Here are some key points from our latest company results to support your assessment:

  • AKG ‘A’ rated. The first and only UK adviser platform to receive the highest rating for financial strength from AKG.
  • £76bn AUA on Wrap and Elevate, up 14% on 2020 showing strong and sustained growth.
  • £74m adjusted operating profit for Wrap and Elevate. Sustainable growth enables abrdn to continually invest in our solutions and experience.
  • 50% of advisers in the UK choose an abrdn platform for their clients’ investments.
  • 426,000 clients trust us to support them and we have the operational scale to support many more.
  • £1.8bn surplus regulatory capital. This strong capital position of the group provides resilience in uncertain times and enables investment to accelerate sustainable growth.

All figures correct as at 31 December 2021.

We’ll refresh our due diligence guides this month with the most up-to-date information. In the meantime, more details of our results are available on the abrdn plc website.

If you have any questions my team would be happy to help so please reach out to your usual contact. Thank you for your continued support

Noel Butwell

CEO, Adviser

AKG A Award 2021

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