Aegon annuity sales head made redundant
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Aegon head of annuity sales Mark Cardy has been made redundant while annuity development manager Jeremy Haines is looking to be redeployed after his role was also axed.
Cardy will leave this month.
Aegon’s annuity rates have plummeted this year.
The firm says the job cuts are due to a change in strategy away from product support.
A spokesman says: “We have recently moved away from a product support focus to an approach that supports customer needs.
“The annuity market is moving towards more individual pricing models and providers are taking different competitive positions in different segments. The aim of being competitive across the board is no longer applicable. Aegon believes its rates represent fair value to customers.”
Directly Financial director Stuart Bayliss says: “It seems that Aegon is no longer interested in positioning itself as one of the two or three most competitive conventional annuity writers. We probably only have three companies who are really competing now and that is not healthy.”
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Readers' comments (6)
Anonymous | 1 Apr 2010 2:09 pm
No one is immune to the downturn in financial services.
RDR post 2012 - will post even more redundancies.
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gavin fielding | 1 Apr 2010 2:44 pm
The government is killing off the life industry with attacks on bonds, life company tax and regulation. All that will be left will be the banks and fund industry, say goodbye to life insurance and annuities on the way.
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Anonymous | 1 Apr 2010 9:47 pm
A shame that anybody is made redundant but needs must in the present climate. Companies need to be run smarter and a more slimlined composition is key.
The shameful area though is the FSA who seem to flourish, live lavish lifestyles in top hotels and have on tap an unending flow of free cash from the IFA's that they are supposed to regulate.
My sincere belief is that they are far too top heavy with legal people and ex bankers (well I think that is how you spell that word) who seem totally and utterly out of touch with the average IFA and his or her role in turning the financial services industry around.
Their employment strategy seems sound though for the job that they are doing with numbers increasing by the day. Let us fine someone else to pay for them.
My view is that they should perhaps look within their own circles and start disciplining, fining and maybe prosecuting those that were responsible through their negligence for the nigh on total collapse of the financial sector. That of course may be taking bullying tactics a little too far though. Heaven forbid that someone should be expected to take responsibility for their actions. Let us leave that to the IFA's that are duty bound to do that.
Some, in fact most IFA's do a damn good job and remarkably in most instances really do have their client's best interests at heart. They just didn't give this bit of paper or this warning or didn't record it properly.
I read the other day the analogy of the school bully, in that if you allow the bully to get away with it he or she become stronger and attitude change becomes more difficult to control. If however, just one person makes a stand against the bullies and that person was followed by another and another, the bullies just may blink and in that moment are struck down, change becomes a reality.
It is time that as an industry we stood up against the bullies within our industry and indeed the FSA and fought for a more robust system of control of the sector.
A thought might be that we could find a group of people that are concerned for the industry rather than lining their own pockets, careers and knighthoods.
My cynicism has come to an end and I am going to enjoy a well earned chocolate rush over the Easter Break.
Not too much though because I have to find a 5 figure sum to pay the increase in levy; Keydata and all that 'controlled/regulated' stuff.
Bring on the revolution, sorry regulation.
Oh and please remember that when the Fat Cats retire they too may require an annuity to pay for ongoing expenses.
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Gerry Cooper | 2 Apr 2010 10:06 pm
Nothing whatever to do with Government, or a downturn.
There's still plenty of Annuity business to be written, and it won't turn down for a number of years yet.
Periodically, a Company will decide to target Annuity Business, and structure it's rates in order to achieve it's objective, which is why SE/Aegon became competitive in this market two or three years ago.
It then decides that,
a) it doesn't want any more of this business on it's books, or
b) It's no longer, or maybe never was, profitable business to write
I would imagine one of the above is what has happened in this case, and I would guess the latter.
I have to say that I never felt that SE/Aegon was a natural fit for Annuity business, or that they were really commited to it for the long term.
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Anonymous | 6 Apr 2010 8:25 am
A very talented presenter who'd given AEGON many years of service in a number of high profile roles.
It's a shame that loyalty counts for nothing these days.
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Jill terr | 6 Apr 2010 2:25 pm
I'm sure they will not be out of work for long, these guys are nothing short of ambasidors for the annuity sector, again if only life companys thought long term, annuities can be cyclical for companies in relation to their capital position. yet again short term thinking has one the day
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