Standard Life has seen a six per cent drop in profits, according to its preliminary results issued today.

The Institute of Financial Planning-sponsor firm saw pre-tax profit fall from £234m in 2010 to £220m in 2011.

The reason for the fall was cited as ‘lower equity market levels in the second half of the year.’

Almost 197,000 people use Standard Life’s platforms which include the Standard Life Wrap, Fundzone and Sigma. The largest platform, Standard Life Wrap, had 1,000 advisers using it, each putting an average of £9.1m on the platform. This brought the total platform assets under administration to £11.4bn.

Sipp customers totaled 134,200, an increase of 25 per cent, with assets under administration increasing from £14.9bn to £16.4bn.

Standard Life Investments saw profits rise by 21 per cent, from £103m to £125m.

David Nish, chief executive of Standard Life, said: “Today’s results again demonstrate that we are well on track to transform the operational and financial performance of Standard Life.

“While the economic backdrop remains uncertain, we are confident that the strong capital position of the Group, the demand for our attractive customer propositions and the continued improvements in operational and capital efficiency mean we are well on track to achieve an ongoing improvement in financial performance.”

The firm said it would continue to support financial advisers and offer them support in the run-up to the RDR, particularly focusing on investments and tax and retirement planning.