Financial Planners, Paraplanners and analysts have been reacting to the merger of Aberdeen and Standard Life.

The companies announced the deal this morning. Read more HERE.

Chartered Financial Planner Martin Bamford, MD of Informed Choice in Surrey, said: “As investment managers face growing scrutiny over their charges, especially for active fund management, scale will become necessary to succeed. This proposed merger will create the largest asset manager in the UK and, once cost savings have been realised, should mean the new business can dramatically cut charges.

“This is great news for investors who will benefit from lower ongoing charges combined with access to experienced fund managers. The merger should mean certainty and stability for existing customers of both businesses, especially as we enter a potentially tricky economic period.”

Nathan Fryer, director of outsourced Paraplanning firm Plan Works in Surrey, said: “It was only a matter of time before we began to see mergers of asset management companies, especially given the recent FCA focus on costs. The merger is expected to result in cost savings of £200 million a year.

“My question would be, how much of that saving will be passed on to the client?

“Standard Life and Aberdeen are very strong in their respective areas and I would expect to see a rationalisation of the funds that they offer.

“The asset management industry has long been trying to push clients down the road of purchasing funds through platforms and alike, because of the cost to administer direct clients, this is easily proven when you look at the stark difference in costs between buying funds direct and buying through a platform.”

He said: “All in all I would hope to see the cost savings passed on to advisers' clients and what I wouldn’t want to see is a sudden up-tick in the number of Aberdeen funds held within the Standard Life Multi-Manager offerings on the basis of a merger as that in my mind would lead to doubts around the objectivity of the funds.”

Mike Horseman DipPFS, managing director of advice firm Cockburn Lucas, said: "As a user of Standard Life's products including there fund management services I was surprised to read about the deal on Saturday evening and will study the proposals in more detail over the coming weeks.

"Any deal such as this will raise questions but my first reaction is broadly positive as I can see scale and opportunity for costs to be cut due to the close proximity if there operations. This merger will not be the last as the sector needs to find wats to become more competitive."

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “This merger is a marriage of the old and the new, both in terms of the companies’ heritage and their main areas of strength.

“In particular, Aberdeen’s emerging markets focus dovetails well with Standard Life’s capabilities in developed markets, though there are considerable areas of overlap between the two fund groups, particularly in multi-asset, fixed income and property strategies.

“Standard Life brings some stability to the table for Aberdeen, which has seen 15 quarters of consecutive outflows, and which will also now benefit from distribution through Standard Life’s workplace pension and wrap platform. Aberdeen meanwhile offers Standard Life a quick route to the big boy’s table by almost doubling assets under management.

“Active managers are feeling the pinch when it comes to fund charges, thanks to the gauntlet laid down by the passive price war, and by targeting £200 million of annual cost savings, both companies will go some way to relieving some of that pressure on the bottom line. However that does unfortunately spell job losses for the combined group.”

Ryan Hughes, head of fund selection at AJ Bell said: “The proposed merger between Standard Life and Aberdeen makes strategic sense for both parties. Aberdeen has been overly reliant on Asian and emerging markets for a long time and this has created significant volatility in its business performance, while Standard Life will see those Asian and emerging market assets as very complimentary to its fixed interest and UK asset base.

“If the merger goes ahead, investors can expect a long period of fund range consolidation as the combined group looks to cut costs. This could create a period of uncertainty but until more news becomes available investors would be wise to stay patient.

“This merger is a continuation of consolidation in the asset manager industry and I would expect to see more as the market appears to move towards huge combined groups or small specialist boutiques.”