Friends Life is to consolidate its individual protection streams onto a single platform, based around the recently acquired Bupa proposition.
It will also draw on the best elements of the Friends Provident individual protection offering and the heritage protection business acquired from AXA.
The company will continue to manage its three existing individual protection propositions and aims to consolidate the range under the Friends Life brand by the end of 2011 following consultation with IFAs.
As part of this evolution a new management structure for the individual business of Friends Life will be implemented.
This will see Steve Payne, CEO of BHA, (interviewed in the present issue of COVER) assume responsibility for developing and implementing the strategy for its individual protection business marketed through IFAs.
Graham Harvey, managing director individual, will be responsible for developing and implementing the strategy for Friends Life's strategic distribution partners.
Trevor Matthews, CEO Friends Life, said: "We announced in February our intention to consolidate all of our individual protection business onto a single cost effective platform and we are confident that using the model from the recently acquired life assurance business of Bupa as the building block is the best way forward.
"It will enable us to offer the optimum protection product range to support our plans in the individual and corporate protection markets in the UK, whilst allowing us to continue developing a low cost-operating model for our business."
Friends Provident Holdings, the holding company for the group and the main acquisition vehicle for Resolution Limited's UK Life Project, also reported total sales of £1,012m (APE) for 2010. This included a contribution of £82m from the acquired AXA UK Life Business and was an increase of 16% on 2009.
However, UK sales for 2010 (excluding AXA UK Life Business) of £391m were down slightly (4%) compared to 2009. Q4 UK sales were 40% greater after the inclusion of AXA UK Life Business.
Profit before tax was £290m in 2010 compared to £21m in 2009, which reflects a full year of Friends Provident results and the post acquisition four month results of the AXA UK Life Business.
Meanwhile, the International and Lombard businesses both delivered record sales in the year, up 24% to £238m and 10% to £302m respectively.
As Friends Provident Holdings works on merging Friends with AXA Life and newly acquired Bupa Health Assurance, the provider says it will reduce UK new business by around £200m by 2013 to concentrate on new product strategies.
The provider aims for an investment return of 15% on its combined companies, and is looking to make savings of £75m over the next year, rising to £112m of efficiencies by the end of 2013.
