Some 40 Aegon employees have been informed that their jobs are at risk following the sale of its individual protection book to Royal London.
An Aegon spokesperson confirmed the news to FTAdviser following this morning’s announcement that 400,000 Aegon protection clients will be transferred to Royal London in 2024.
The spokesperson said: “Approximately 40 Aegon UK colleagues are impacted by this announcement – we are supporting them through this difficult time. Impacted colleagues have been informed their roles are at risk and consultation with the appropriate unions is ongoing.”
The sale is expected to complete in 2024 following court approval of the deal, with Aegon UK reinsuring the portfolio to Royal London in the interim period.
As of the end of last year, Aegon had a total of 19,087 staff working globally.
FTAdviser understands that the impacted staff are in Aegon UK’s sales division while the administration staff that worked across the group’s life insurance, critical illness and income protection policies are currently outsourced to a third party provider.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Royal London’s chief executive Barry O’Dwyer said that Royal London will not initially be hiring any additional staff to serve its expanded book.
But O’Dwyer expects additional employees will be needed once the book is fully integrated.
“Logically, we'll need more people than we currently do to administer a bigger book," O’Dwyer said.
"Although we will obviously review what's happening, it’s currently outsourced, and we may continue with that arrangement. We have some work to do to try and figure all of that out.”
He added: “From our perspective and from colleagues that work across Royal London, it's a major expansion of our protection business and therefore I would hope that that will create more opportunities for people.”
jane.matthews@ft.com
