Friends Life launches from Resolution buyouts
LIFE insurance consolidator Resolution announces its retail face with the launch of Friends Life today.
Friends Provident chief executive Trevor Matthews will head the new brand, working on it from his native Australia when he returns there soon, he told City A.M. yesterday.
Friends Life brings together five million life customers from Friends Provident, Axa UK and Bupa and will actively court new business with new life and pension products.
“Resolution 1 was a closed-book consolidator, but Friends Life is very definitely an open business,” he said. “There is a massive need for the UK public to save more for the future and we want to participate in that.”
Resolution was promoted as a £10bn consolidation giant that would transform the life sector but has spent only about £5bn to date. Matthews says despite this it has “done a very good job of stimulating life companies to respond to what was a pretty sorry track record in the past.”