Royal London announces record life and pensions growth

On an annual basis, group pensions saw a 27% rise to £2,798m, individual pensions rose by 39% to £1,926m, while drawdown soared by 67% to £1,301m.

Over the same period, sales of protection through advisers rose by 49% to £502m. Royal London attributed the rise in sales to product changes and through further enhancing its service and digital capability for both customers and advisers. Bright Grey transferred to utilising the Royal London brand during Q4 2015.   

Consumer new business volumes more than quadrupled, up 385% to £165m on 31 December 2015 from £34m on 31 December 2014.

The Ascentric wrap platform saw gross sales of £2.5bn, an increase of 14%. Funds under administration also increased by 13% to £10.1bn.

Phil Loney, Group Chief Executive of Royal London, commented:

“This is another strong set of results with all life and pensions businesses putting in an excellent new business performance and building on Royal London’s strong track record. To put this in context, over the last four years sales from our life assurance and pension range have more than doubled. Our asset management and platform businesses both saw good growth in total assets despite a very volatile market. Over the same four year period total group assets under management are up 92%.  

“In the last year or so we have invested heavily in the development of our offering to the intermediary protection market. This investment is beginning to yield results as we see an improvement in sales of protection through advisers of nearly 50%.  

“I firmly believe that this success is down to our mutual status. We are not driven by short term payback periods demanded by shareholders and can focus on products and service that deliver real customer value. We are proud to share our profits with our growing numbers of eligible members and customers."