Friends Life

With take up of sales in income protection (IP) by advisers so low, reflecting in low consumer sales, what could be done to the product to make it more attractive to IFAs, apart from increased commission?

Shareholders in Resolution Ltd are expected to block any further acquisitions other than life businesses by the company under new rules to be confirmed in January.

Parents and partners, not professionals, are increasingly the first point of call for financial advice, according to new research.

Friends Life has appointed John Van Der Wielen as Managing Director, International. International businesses Van Der Wielen will oversee include Friends Provident International (FPI) based in the UK and the Isle of Man.

Friends Life will widen its annuity product range and ramp up its consumer marketing next year in a bid to avoid losing its existing savers, and to capture more when it becomes an open market option (OMO) provider.

Royal London today launched its online financial planning tool for consumers, MoneyVista.

Friends Life latest figures for third quarter of 2011 show that the International business continued the strong growth seen in the first half of 2011, with sales up 11% to £195m.

Friends Life has announced completion of the outsourcing on IT and Customer Service functions of its UK Heritage business.

Group protection business at Friends Life dropped by more than half in the third quarter of the year while individual business slipped slightly compared to the previous three months.

Friends Life Group said it is investigating drop-offs in persistency for some products ahead of the RDR despite a rise in sales of 24% in the nine months to September.