Shares in Standard Life were down on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading after the insurance company gave its results for the full year ended 31 December 2010.

Fee based revenues rose 16 per cent in the period to £1.1 billion while operating pre-tax profit climbed seven per cent to £425 million. Post-tax profit more than doubled however to £432 million.

The group said that net adjusted inflows in the year were up 46 per cent to £8.3 billion while third party assets under management rose 26 per cent to a record £71.6 billion.

Following the results Standard Life said it would be raising its full year dividend 6.2 per cent to 13.0 pence per share, adding that it was using its higher cash flow to increase investment into the company 57 per cent to £201 million.

David Nish, Chief Executive of Standard Life, said, "Standard Life had a good year in 2010. Our financial performance has been strong, with higher net flows and markets increasing the value of assets and revenues and leading to growth in profits. We've also made significant operational progress to drive efficiencies and are on track to meet our target of £100m of margin improvement by 2012. We've refocused our portfolio and the acquisitions of threesixty, Focus Solutions and Aida Capital have strengthened our capabilities and accelerated the delivery of our strategy.

"Overall, there remains a great deal to be done but I am even more confident that our clear strategy and our customer and performance focused approach will continue to deliver profitable growth, supporting our progressive dividend policy."

By 15:45 shares in Standard Life were down 6.95 per cent on the FTSE 100 to 227.70 pence per share.