NORWICH UNION is the latest company to "ditch" the pensions sector for more profitable business, reports this morning's Scotsman, after yesterday calling for large-scale deregulation of the pensions market.
In reporting Aviva’s latest financial results yesterday, the insurer said over-regulation was to blame for the lower returns generated by insurers from individual and group pensions, so it had deliberately chosen to allow its pensions market share to fall in order to increase profitability - as Standard Life has recently done. In particular, chief executive Gary Withers claimed it was currently "easier to buy a house than a pension", meaning higher fees for independent financial advisers (IFAs), but this also comes at the same time as reporting pension sales fell 17% fall in pensions to ...
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