AegonNov 17 2016

Aegon closes four guaranteed income products

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Aegon closes four guaranteed income products

Aegon has closed four guaranteed income products as part of a move to promote its new platform-based guaranteed income product, Secure Retirement Income.

As of today (17 November) Aegon's four non-platform guaranteed products - Aegon Secure Lifetime Income, Aegon Secure Income, Aegon Secure Capital and Aegon Secure Trustee Investment - will be closed to new customers.

But Aegon said it was "committed to servicing customers with existing guaranteed products".

The company said the move was a response to adviser demand for pension guarantees on platform.

It said sales of the platform-based Secure Retirement Income (SRI) product were up 139 per cent on the previous year. 

Mark Till, chief distribution and marketing officer at Aegon, said: "The pension freedoms have transformed the market for guarantees and demand for guaranteed drawdown has taken off.

"This decision will allow us to fully focus our efforts behind SRI which is integrated with the Aegon Retirement Choices platform and is where we’re experiencing the majority of demand for our guaranteed products. There will be no change for existing customers."

Since the introduction of pension freedoms in April 2015, a number of providers have launched single-product annuity-drawdown hybrids, including MetLife, Axa Wealth and Aegon.

But last month Axa Life Invest announced it was withdrawing its product, Secure Advantage+, from the market.

In July, Partnership also announced it was scrapping its hybrid annuity-drawdown product. 

james.fernyhough@ft.com