Financial advisers reveal their good, bad and indifferent dealings with LV as the company seeks a new chief executive for the first time in 10 years.
The company announced on 15 April that Mike Rogers is to step down from provider LV as soon as a suitable successor is found, bringing his decade-long tenure at the helm to a close.
According to chairman, Mark Austin, when he hired Mr Rogers as chief executive officer in 2006 the “tired brand” was in dire need of modernising.
“It had diversified too far into areas like banking, where it didn’t have a significant market position, a general insurance business leaking money and customers, and a life business relying on the idea that mutuality would provide the reason for people to buy,” Mr Austin told Financial Adviser.
In the years under Mr Rogers’ leadership and the rebranded LV moved from a £20m loss to a £195m profit in 2015, and from two million to almost six million customers.
However, hard-to-please advisers have mixed views about the ‘transformation’.
Phil Stevenson, director at Cheshire-based Ark Financial Planning, said he uses LV “to a limited extent” because “other providers have looked to provide more focus”.
Darren Cooke, director of Derbyshire-based Red Circle Financial Planning, said he was impressed by changes at LV, but has yet to ever be tempted by what it has for sale.
“It will be interesting to see if LV has planned well for a successor to continue what Mr Rogers has done and move the business forwards,” Mr Cooke said.
Lee Robertson, chief executive at London-based Investment Quorum, is a huge fan of LV’s client education material for “demonstrating real world solutions to financial and pensions issues, and breaking complex issues down into understandable pieces with good use of visual explanations”.
Steve Hennessy, Chartered financial planner at Buckinghamshire-based Myers Davison Ginger, praised LV’s competitive products, and quick-to-respond business development managers.
“LV has adapted well to the changes in pensions landscape, and Joe Public responds positively to the brand.”
