Quilter has sold its life and pensions arm, Old Mutual Wealth Life Assurance Ltd, to ReAssure for £425m.

The firm says the sale “will further act to solidify Quilter’s position as an advice led, modern wealth manager”.

Commenting on the transaction, Paul Feeney, chief executive of Quilter, said: “I am delighted we have agreed to sell Quilter Life Assurance to ReAssure.

“ReAssure is a highly regarded manager of closed book assets and has the experience to deliver continued high quality investment and administration services to clients of Quilter Life Assurance.

“The Quilter Board is currently minded to return a meaningful proportion of the net surplus proceeds arising from the transaction to shareholders and will consult with them on the most appropriate means of undertaking this.”

Meanwhile Quilter announced its first half results up to 30 June and revealed profits had grown by 5%.

Adjusted profit before tax increased from £110m to £115m.

Assets under management were up 8% from 31 December 2018 to £118.4bn

Mr Feeney said: “Quilter produced a solid set of results for the first half of 2019, as evidenced by growth in adjusted profit before tax with revenues growing modestly faster than costs and a stable operating margin.

“We are focussed on making Quilter a simpler, more efficient wealth management business, and the announcement today of the sale of Quilter Life Assurance is a further significant step forward in this regard.

“In addition to the Charles Derby Group acquisition announced in February 2019, I am delighted that we completed the acquisition of Lighthouse plc in June 2019, consolidating our place as the second largest retail advisory business in the UK.

“We are on a mission to make advice more valued and accessible and want Quilter to be recognised as the best place to go for trusted financial advice in the UK.”

He added:“While the uncertain political environment in the UK evidenced in the latter half of 2018 has continued into 2019, gross new business sales have held up well at £6bn.

“We experienced higher outflows in Quilter Cheviot following the resignation of some investment managers during 2018 putting pressure on net flows.

“The board declared an interim dividend of 1.7 pence per share, representing a pay-out ratio of approximately 46% of adjusted profit after tax and based on an expected one third/two thirds dividend split.

“This is consistent with the dividend policy outlined at the time of our listing one year ago.”