Friends enhances critical illness offering
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends enhances critical illness offering
Friends Life has enhanced coverage on a number of its critical illness policies by adding new conditions, enhanced ABI+ definitions and removing restrictions on pay-outs linked to terminal illnesses. New conditions covered are: Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Pituitary Tumour, Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation and Cerebral Aneurysm. Childs Hydrocephalus has also been added for children. In addition, Sudden [...]
Friends Life appoints investments director
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Life appoints investments director
Friends Life has appointed Colin Tipping to the newly-created position of director, unit linked investments. Mr Tipping joins from BlackRock where he was most recently head of institutional wholesale. In his new role, he will oversee an existing fund strategy and selection team, reporting into Colin Williams, director of corporate. Commenting on his appointment, Mr [...]
Friends appoints director of corporate
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends appoints director of corporate
Friends Provident has appointed Colin Williams as director of corporate, following the departure of Paul McMahon. Reporting directly to chief executive Trevor Matthews, Mr Williams will be responsible for the development and implementation of a workplace savings strategy in the corporate benefits market, and will manage the ongoing integration of the Friends Provident and AXA [...]
Lloyds’ general insurance chief heads for Friends
by Gill Montia
Story link: Lloyds’ general insurance chief heads for Friends
The head of general insurance at Lloyds Banking Group is reported to be quitting his post to take up the role of chief executive at Friends Provident. Andy Briggs is expected to make the switch within the next six months, having moved from Scottish Widows to become Lloyds’ chief executive, general insurance, during a shake-up [...]
Friends Provident relocates ahead of relaunch
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident relocates ahead of relaunch
Friends Provident is relocating its head office to the One New Change development in the City of London, moving from nearby Wood Street. The location will apparently provide a “fitting home” for the enlarged Friends, following the acquisition of the majority of AXA’s UK life business by parent company, Resolution Ltd, in September. The change, [...]
Bupa offloads UK protection and risk business
by Gill Montia
Story link: Bupa offloads UK protection and risk business
Bupa has announced that it is selling its UK protection and risk business, Bupa Health Assurance, to consolidator Resolution Ltd, for £165.15 million. The move reflects the group’s intention to focus on its healthcare businesses, including its health insurance products and services in the UK. Bupa Health & Wellbeing manging director, Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, comments: [...]
Resolution to merge AXA acquisition with Friends
by Gill Montia
Story link: Resolution to merge AXA acquisition with Friends
Resolution Ltd’s acquisition of AXA’s UK traditional life and pensions businesses, confirmed today, has raised fears of significant job cuts. According to reports, Resolution expects to achieve cost savings of £75 million over four years by merging the businesses with Friends Provident, which it acquired last year. So far, AXA has announced that 2,200 employees [...]
Friends happy with critical illness stats
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends happy with critical illness stats
Friends Provident paid £34.5 million in critical illness claims during 2009, the company has revealed. Of the 624 claims received, only 46 were declined and the percentage of claims declined due to non-disclosure fell by nearly half, from 4% to 2.1%. The statistics also show a rise in the number of children’s critical illness claims [...]
Friends declares “a good year for with-profits”
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends declares “a good year for with-profits”
Friends Provident has announced a rise in some bonus rates, having declared “a good year for with-profits”. The life and pensions provider’s gross investment return on its with-profits fund stood at 9.3% in 2009 and all final bonus rates have either increased or remained unchanged from a year earlier. In addition, market value reductions (penalties [...]
Friends proposes merger with Resolution Ltd
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends proposes merger with Resolution Ltd
Friends Provident has followed up its rejection of a takeover approach from Resolution Limited with proposals for a merger of the companies. Resolution Limited was formed by Clive Cowdery following the sale of Resolution Plc, the closed life consolidator also headed by Mr Cowdery until it was acquired by Pearl in 2007. Friends was also [...]
Friends rejects Resolution Limited’s approach
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends rejects Resolution Limited’s approach
Friends Provident is reported to have rejected a takeover approach from Resolution Limited, the acquisition vehicle set up last year by Clive Cowdery. Resolution is said to be considering its options, with The Times reporting that it may appeal directly to shareholders. Friends failed in its bid for Mr Cowdery’s original Resolution Plc, the closed [...]
Sales dive 40% for Friends Provident
by Gill Montia
Story link: Sales dive 40% for Friends Provident
Friends Provident recorded a 40% fall in sales during the first quarter of 2009, to £147.9 million. The insurer attributed the decline to a “new strategy and a tough economic environment”, adding that UK individual protection sales strengthened in March but remained 8% lower than during the final quarter of 2008 because of challenging housing [...]
Friends Provident posts £541 million loss
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident posts £541 million loss
Friends Provident has announced a net loss of £541 million for 2008, compared with a loss of £108 million a year ago. The life and pensions provider also reported that losses on investments stood at £6.6 billion last year, up from £2.6 billion in 2007. In presenting the results, chief executive Trevor Matthews called 2008 [...]
Friends abandons sale of F&C Management stake
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends abandons sale of F&C Management stake
Friends Provident has shelved plans to sell its 52% stake in F&C Management, the global asset manager that focuses on institutional and retail investors. The sale was originally mooted back in December of 2007 after Friends’ failed bid for closed life consolidator, Resolution, left the future of the company in doubt. However, no buyer has [...]
Friends Provident reports 11% fall in sales
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident reports 11% fall in sales
Friends Provident has reported an 11% drop in sales during 2008. The company will issue its full-year results on 17th March but today’s trading update estimates last year’s sales at £1.005 billion, compared with £1.135 billion in 2007. The life and pensions provider has attributed the decline to the economic slowdown and the financial crisis, [...]
Friends Provident cuts with-profits bonuses by up to 20%
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident cuts with-profits bonuses by up to 20%
Friends Provident has cut bonus rates on its with-profits policies by up to 20%. The life and pensions provider has attributed the move to a weak investment performance by its with-profits fund, which lost 10.5% during last year. Around 1.2 million policyholders are affected. Typically, the payout for someone investing £50 a month into a [...]
Friends Provident abandons sale of Lombard
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident abandons sale of Lombard
Friends Provident has announced that it is abandoning the sale of Lombard, its wealth management business. The Lombard unit has been up for sale for nine months but according to the group’s chief executive, Trevor Matthews, Friends has now decided to retain and develop the business. The life and pensions provider began a programme of [...]
Insurers calculate exposure to Lehman Brothers and AIG
by Gill Montia
Story link: Insurers calculate exposure to Lehman Brothers and AIG
As insurance companies take stock after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the last minute rescue of AIG, estimates of exposures are emerging. Friends Provident calculates that its exposure to Lehman Brothers is around £18 million but the life and pensions provider expects any loss to fall well short of this amount when taxes and [...]
Credit crisis impacts the health of the nation
by Gill Montia
Story link: Credit crisis impacts the health of the nation
Research commissioned by Friends Provident warns that the credit crunch could have a dramatic impact on the nation’s health. The Britain Under Pressure report suggests that almost 29 million people in the UK, or nearly two-thirds of adults, feel more stressed, less fit and healthy, and more prone to illness than they did three years [...]
Friends won’t sell units at cut-price
by David Masters
Story link: Friends won’t sell units at cut-price
Friends Provident, the smallest provider of blue-chip life insurance in the UK, will not sell its Luxembourg-based unit Lombard insurance or its stake in fund manager F&C unless the price is right. CEO Trevor Matthews, appointed five weeks ago, said the company does not need the money from the sales to support its strategic outlook [...]
