Week in Brief for Aug 24-28

Strategic adviser succession planning and the growing role of digital tools in retirement consolidation are shaping conversations across the UK wealth management industry this week. At the center of both discussions are St James’s Place’s internal practice sale scheme and Aegon’s pension app.

Inside SJP’s Business Sale & Purchase scheme

Calderwood Financial principal Lucy Logan has described SJP’s internal Business Sale & Purchase scheme as supportive, robust and transparent. She expanded her firm by acquiring the practice of retiring adviser Kevin Laidlaw, using self-sustaining loans backed by client advice fees to fund the deal.

The arrangement allows advisers to sell their practices internally when they retire, with payments structured over time rather than as a lump sum. That structure is what makes it work for buyers like her, who can grow without needing significant upfront capital.

Industry debate continues over internal network valuations versus open market sales.

Logan argues that strict due-diligence protects client service standards while still helping advisers achieve long-term growth. The scheme essentially keeps client relationships within the network rather than letting them drift to competitors.

For advisers approaching retirement, the appeal is clear: a structured exit with a known buyer. For those buying, it’s a way to scale quickly. The tension between those two perspectives is where the debate sits. Neither side is likely to fully concede the other’s point.

Aegon’s Mylo app reaches a pensions milestone

UK savers have now consolidated more than £250m in pensions through Aegon’s Mylo app since its September 2025 launch. The app has combined over 21,000 pension pots and now counts more than 166,000 registered users, according to the firm.

It helps members trace and consolidate lost or forgotten pensions, using tracing technology supplied by Raindrop. Aegon said the growing usage figures demonstrated demand for simple digital tools that remove friction from pension management.

That demand has a clear backdrop.

The Pensions Policy Institute estimates that £31.1bn remains in lost pensions across the UK, which is a substantial pool of money sitting in accounts people have forgotten about or can’t easily track down.

What’s notable about the app’s growth is the pace. Reaching that user count in under a year suggests the app is filling a genuine gap, not just generating sign-ups that go unused. The consolidation activity shows actual behavior change, not just curiosity.

For savers, the practical effect is simpler.

Fewer scattered pots means less paperwork, clearer retirement planning, and potentially better fee structures. It also means one less thing to track as they approach retirement age.

The broader context matters too.

Lost pensions are a persistent problem in the UK system, and digital solutions like Mylo are one of the few approaches that appear to be making measurable progress. Whether that momentum continues will depend on whether users stick with the app beyond the initial consolidation.

The company’s numbers are self-reported, and the app’s long-term impact on retirement outcomes won’t be clear for years. But the early adoption figures are hard to dismiss, and they suggest that when pension tools are genuinely easy to use, people will engage with them.