Royal London has posted its results today (12 May) which reveal new life and pensions business of £2.09bn across the first quarter this year, an increase of 52 per cent compared with the first quarter in 2015.
Group pensions totalled £959m, an increase of 86 per cent on 2015, individual pensions were up to £611m, an increase of 29 per cent on the start of 2016, and drawdown reached £291m, an increase of 19 per cent on the same period a year ago.
Elsewhere, protection sales via intermediaries reached £147m, an increase of 37 per cent on the first quarter of 2015, while direct to consumer sales reached £67m, an increase of 179 per cent on the same period a year ago.
Total group funds under management were at £87.9bn at 31 March 2016, up 4 per cent from £84.5bn at 31 December 2015.
Additionally, Royal London Asset Management attracted new business with gross inflows of £1.1bn, against 2015’s figure of £0.7bn, largely due to a significant increase in institutional new business with a number of new clients.
The Ascentric wrap platform saw gross sales of £0.5bn against a figure of £0.6bn in 2015.
Assets under administration at Ascentric increased by 3 per cent to £10.4bn compared with £10.1bn at 31 December 2015.
Phil Loney, group chief executive of Royal London, said the firm’s strategy of striving to bring the best quality proposition and best customer outcomes to the market is really paying off.
He said: “While our pension propositions have been leading the way for some time it is good to see that our protection proposition in the intermediary market is now finding strong levels of support from advisers.
“Our new consumer division which looks to bring real value to areas of the market where there has been little competition historically is now a significant source of new business in its own right.
“It focuses on simple products offering better value for money and fairer customer outcomes than our competitors. We continue to concentrate on a non-advised offering to customers who will not or do not utilise regulated financial advisers.”
He added that while new business growth remains robust, he anticipates that groups pensions will see a slowing of momentum in coming quarters.
“While we continue to bring on board large numbers of schemes, we anticipate that the average premium will be lower as more smaller employers enrol their workforces into a pension.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
