Mark Wilkinson has left his head of wealth management development role at AXA to take charge of a leadership team at the UK firm’s distribution services arm. He assumed the newly created role of head of financial planning on Friday.

Mr Wilkinson will be expanding on the technical product support currently offered to advisors using Elevate, AXA’s wrap business platform. This will include the development of a seminar and workshop programme, focusing on the detail of tax and financial planning regulation.

He and his team will be working closely with the business consultancy and distribution teams to provide direct on-site client support. Mr Wilkinson will also play an integral role in the strategic development of the AXA Distribution Services client offering.

"In expanding the senior leadership team with Mark’s appointment, we’re able to respond to customer demand and help embed Elevate into advisor’s businesses with extensive support at every stage of the process. Mark’s multi-faceted technical and client-facing experience as a financial planner will be invaluable in responding to customer feedback and establishing Elevate as a market-leading proposition," said Mark Jennings, head of sales and marketing at AXA Distribution Services.

AXA has operations in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific area. The firm had €981 billion ($1,337 billion) in assets under management as of 31 December.