Norwich Union have just announced that life and pensions (including annuities) sales have dropped 12%. They saw their UK life and pensions sales tumble by 12% during the first quarter of this year, from figures just released. They claim that the dramatic changes in world stockmarkets and the global recession have hampered people’s ability to save and plan their finances properly, leading to a downturn in business. Their total new life business fell to around £2.5bn in the first three months of this year, down from £2.85bn in the same period last year.
However, Norwich Union says the rapid downturn in the world markets at the end of last year means the preceding quarter is actually more directly comparable. On that measure, their sales are broadly stable, with new life and pensions business reaching £2.4bn in Q4 last year.
Individual pensions have performed quite strongly, up 17% since December last year to £900m, and individual annuity product sales increased 24% to around £407m over the same period. Overall pension sales did fall 11% to £989m compared with the first three months of last year, while total annuity sales are actually down 8% to £475m.
Protection business saw the sharpest fall for Norwich Union, with them blaming the Competition Commission’s ruling on single premium PPI as having a heavy impact on business.
Norwich Union continues to try and renegotiate the reattribution of its large with-profits fund’s inherited estate. It says that its discussions with the policyholder advocate are drawing to a close, and the final deal to be reached is likely to be considerably less than the original offer. The inherited estate has been valued at about £1.4bn at the end of March.
Norwich Union remain one of the top companies when it comes to seeking out annuity quotes for the best annuity rates for an individual’s set of circumstances.
