Pru rolls out financial planning service

7 February 2012 2:16 pm | By Natalie Holt

Prudential is rolling out its Prudential Financial Planning service to offer face-to-face advice for existing customers close to retirement.

The insurer has been piloting the service over the last 18 months with about 20 field-based staff. A further 20 staff are set to join Prudential Financial Planning over the coming weeks, with a view to growing staff numbers to 80 over 2012.

The service will be targeting customers who came to the Pru through its direct sales force, which was axed in February 2001 to focus on telephone, online and workplace customer service.

Prudential Financial Planning will cater to 45 to 65 year old customers who are either higher rate taxpayers or who have investable assets of £40,000. Field-based staff will only be offering Prudential products.

Pru announced plans to develop the service last August.

A Pru spokesman says: “This is for those customers that came to us through the direct door-to-door sales force, the so-called ‘Man from the Pru.’ IFAs’ clients are their’s and not our’s. The IFA channel remains the core channel for distributing our products, and that is where 95 per cent of our resources our dedicated and where we see sales coming from.

“This is about looking at latent demand, as it has become increasingly apparent there is a need there for this type of service.”

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