70% of Scottish Life individual customers opt for Governed Range
1 December 2011
Scottish Life, the pensions specialist arm of the Royal London Group, has announced continued growth for its Governed Range, with around 6.5%1 of all new individual business in the UK through IFAs now using the Range.
Scottish Life's Governed Range aims to make choosing and monitoring investments more transparent, by offering well-defined governance controls and lifestyling options at no additional cost. The Range is based on a robust four-stage process of risk assessment; asset allocation; fund selection; and regular reviews. This process helps ensure that the investment selection remains appropriate for the client’s identified risk profile throughout the lifetime of the plan.
Lorna Blyth, Investment Marketing Manager at Scottish Life, said:
“The Governed Range has been a tremendous success since launch. This is particularly true amongst advisers who have recognised the value of the Range in helping fulfil their regulatory obligations to focus on suitability of asset allocation and ongoing advice.
“For the adviser’s clients, the Governed Range can provide the additional peace of mind that their pension is being regularly monitored, and amended where necessary, to ensure the investments remain appropriate in relation to market conditions and client requirements.
“The fact that over 70%2 of new individual pensions customers now have a Governed Range pension, which constitutes 6.5% of the entire UK new business market through IFAs, is clear evidence that this approach is much more attractive for many people than the traditional 'one size fits all' managed fund.
“These figures also demonstrate how providers and advisers can work together successfully to deliver effective solutions to the retirement planning needs of the UK’s mass affluent market.”
-ENDS-
1 Source: 2011 Scottish Life and Association of British Insurers figures. Individual market share of just over 9% means around 6.5% of all new individual pensions business, for the 3 months to the end of September 2011, used Scottish Life’s Governed Range.
2 The proportion of new individual customers using the Governed Range in the 3 months to end September 2011.
For further information please contact:
Scottish Life
Alasdair Buchanan, Head of Communications
0131 456 7133
Lorna Blyth, Investment Marketing Manager
0131 470 1360
Redleaf Polhill
Sally Walton
Marlene Scott 020 7566 6750
Editor’s Notes:
The Governed Range is a series of investment portfolios and lifestyle strategies available within Scottish Life's Retirement Solutions and Pension Portfolio contracts. The Governed Range focuses on risk profiling, asset allocation, fund picking, rebalancing and ongoing governance. It is particularly suited for IFAs who are interested in getting support to help deliver quality investment advice, at low cost, within a Treating Customers Fairly framework.
Past performance is not a guide to the future. Prices can go down as well as up. Investment returns may fluctuate and are not guaranteed.
Scottish Life was founded in 1881 in Edinburgh as a proprietary company, becoming a
mutual company in 1968.
On 1 July 2001, Scottish Life demutualised and transferred its business to The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited. Scottish Life is a division of Royal London and is the specialist pensions business within the Group, providing individual and group pensions to the market via intermediaries.
Scottish Life and Royal London’s other intermediary businesses are based mainly in
Edinburgh where 1,030 staff are employed, with 790 working in other parts of the UK and overseas.
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on
those sectors of the market which value quality propositions, operating through a number of brands:
• Scottish Life – UK pensions market
• Bright Grey – UK protection market
• Scottish Provident – UK protection market
• Caledonian Life – ROI protection market
• Royal London 360° – offshore investment markets
• RLAM – fund management
• Royal London Plus – life and pensions administration
• Ascentric/IFDL – Wrap Platform
• MoneyVista – online financial planning service for consumers
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £44.2 billion. Group businesses serve around 4 million customers and employ 2,950 people. Figures quoted are as at 30 September 2011.