Savings and retirement group Phoenix will rebrand as Standard Life next March.

Andy Briggs, CEO, said the change will “bring our strongest and most trusted brand to the fore.”

He added: “It reflects our vision to become the UK’s leading retirement savings and income business and demonstrates the way the business has transformed and evolved in the last five years.

“The UK long-term savings and retirement market is already large. We are uniquely positioned to capture this momentum.”

The business has more than £295bn of assets under administration and around 12m pensions, savings and life insurance customers.

The company claims to have been around for more than 240 years with the name Phoenix Assurance being established in 1782, but the Phoenix Group brand has only existed for 15 years.

Phoenix Assurance was one of many old brands bought by Resolution Life, which was formed in 2004 to provide a vehicle for life funds that had been closed to new business. Its first purchases were Royal & SunAlliance and Swiss Life's UK business.

Resolution was taken over by the Pearl Group in 2008 and rebranded as Phoenix Group 2010. Phoenix Group acquired Standard Life Assurance from Standard Life Aberdeen for £2.9bn in 2018.

The company today reported a 5% growth in AUA to £187.9bn in its interim results. It said adjusted operating profit climbed 20% to £179m in the six months.

Mr Briggs said: “This is a strong first half performance, maintaining momentum in key areas of focus for our Standard Life business. We are well on track to deliver all of our financial targets while continuing to invest in our market-leading Pensions and Savings and Retirement Solutions businesses.”

He said the firm achieved £2.8bn of net inflows in workplace in the half year while its retirement solutions business expects to deploy up to around £200m of capital into annuities in 2025.

The firm re-entered the annuity market in late 2023. It said it delivered individual annuity sales of £0.6bn in the period.