Partnership has today (23 June) announced the loss of approximately 100 roles across its London and Redhill offices as part of cost savings further to those outlined earlier this year.
Together with the actions already taken, the proposals are expected to generate annualised cost savings of £21m in 2015, resulting in anticipated total operating expenses of approximately £80m next year.
The firm expects to incur non-recurring costs totalling £3m this year in implementing these changes, and a further £5m during 2014 and 2015 in supporting new initiatives, including product development.
Chief executive Steve Groves said a consultation process was being entered into with employees over impending redundancies.
He said: “Whilst this is regrettable, we believe this action is necessary to manage our cost base to reflect the impact of the pension changes announced in the Budget on sales of individual annuities across the industry.”
The cost savings target takes into account the anticipated impact of lower levels of individual annuity sales, offset by targeted investment to develop areas of the business where it is believed the greatest opportunities lie to leverage intellectual property and expertise.
“It is our intention that the decisive action we have announced today will deliver the necessary alignment of our cost base required for the business to thrive in our new environment”, added Groves.”
Rival annuity provider MGM Advantage announced 80 redundancies at the end of April, along with plans for a “radical new proposition” after admitting it “would be madness” to ignore the pension changes announced in the Budget.
Enhanced annuities specialist Just Retirement also moved to cut £14m in costs in its interim results last month, after it said the increased flexibility for retirees already reduced sales volumes for individual annuities by around half.
