However, the managing director of retirement lending, international and group development explains there is a scientific underpinning for the colour selection.
He said: “Our colour scheme has a triple-A accessibility score. Black or white on the coral pallet provides a strong cut, which can be particularly helpful for our customers who are in later life.”
The £1.4bn merger of Just Retirement and Partnership in summer 2016 helped to shore up the business against the major changes in the way savers access their pensions.
Mr Turner said: “Our businesses were very similar – we were not bringing together an Aviva and a Friends Life, for example. Every business has its own way of doing things, but our businesses share the same ethos of championing better outcomes for customers. Now is the time to move forward under a new culture.”
The firm will continue to write all existing products with the Just Retirement and Partnership branding, under the guise of ‘Just’. Existing policyholders will be made aware of the change, Mr Turner said.
Both Just Retirement and Partnership’s annuity rates took a battering by the sweeping reforms to pensions unveiled in the 2014 Budget. The former recorded a 56 per cent fall in annuity sales in a year to June 2015, while the latter said sales had halved during 2015.
Mr Turner accurately points to a slight resurgence in sales of annuities in the final quarter of 2015 where sales outpaced that of drawdown, according to ABI figures. However, annuity sales fell in the ensuing quarter, with £950m invested in the period to March, compared with £1.1bn in the previous quarter.
In its interim management statement for the quarter ending 30 September 2016, JRP Group – the previous name of Just – reported a 12 per cent increase in the sale of guaranteed income for life products (GIfL) to £604m on a pro forma basis.
Mr Turner said: “We have been very happy with our success in the market. We see the annuity market growing from the base of where we are today driven by demography, more people coming to the open market and the need for secure income.
“Some people may not wish to secure their income at age 65, but they might do so 10 years down the line after a life-changing event.”
Rivals LV cited a growing demand for flexible retirement income solutions and fixed-term annuities as the main reasons behind its withdrawal from the annuity market – announced in November last year.
The move meant that the lender will continue to offer standard annuities and now enhanced annuities – the only product in the sector it sold – from other providers.
But Just will not follow suit, Mr Turner said, adding: “Guarantees are fundamental to our business. We believe many customers want and value the guarantees in our products.
“Many players have chosen to offer products where the risk sits with the customers. Such products are appropriate for some customers, but for those who wish and need a guarantee, we want to stand for them.”
The inconsistencies in annuity sales in the wider market post pension freedoms are juxtaposed by the burgeoning equity release market, which has soared to a new high of £2.15bn in 2016 – a year-on-year increase of 26 per cent, according to the latest ‘Equity release market monitor’ from Key Retirement.
The growth rate of JRP’s lifetime mortgage advances of 27 per cent to £465m – again on a pro forma basis – exceeded that of GlfL sales.
Inertia of equity release is among a number of headwinds that are preventing the market from reaching its potential, according to Mr Turner.
A number of industry figures have called for the creation of a standalone equity release qualification to allow pension and investment advisers to sell the products without having to qualify as mortgage advisers.
He said: “Growing distribution is an important part of how we grow the market. Getting more advisers qualified to sell equity release products is a good thing. Bringing together advice that focuses on all of the options available at retirement and in retirement is important for clients.”
Product innovation, which was widely expected to fill the gap left by annuities, is yet to come to fruition, but Mr Turner questioned whether there was a need for new solutions.
He said: “When we talk to our customers, their needs haven’t changed. They want security, they want peace of mind, they want to know that their money will not run out, and some want to leave a legacy to their family.
“What has changed is their access to advice and the complexity of the choices that face them. We are working on ideas to provide a solution to that: it might be a referral system. We do not have anything to put on the table today, but we are in deep conversation with a number of groups.”
This is not to say Just will not launch new products. Mr Turner did not disclose specific details and expected release dates, but he said bells and whistles when it comes to new retirement solutions is not the answer.
Myron Jobson is features writer at Financial Adviser
Career highlights
April 2016 - present: Managing director, retirement lending, international and group development, Just
2014 - 2016: Group director, business development, Just Retirement
2010 - 2014: Director, division globals, Swiss Re
2008 - 2010: Principal officer, Singapore branch, head of life and health, Southeast Asia, Swiss Re
2006 - 2008: Chief underwriter, Asia-Pacific, Swiss Re
