Life & Pensions Recruitment
Life & Pensions recruitment is a major part of the High Finance Group business. Relevant clients in this area include:
Legal & General
Friends Provident
AVIVA
Prudential (UK)
Skandia
Old Mutual
Financial Services Authority
MetLife
Relevant Life & Pensions news:
Resolution sees weaker Friends sales
Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:50am GMT
Reporting by Myles Neligan; Editing by David Cowell
From the Reuters website
LONDON (Reuters) - British insurance-focussed bid vehicle Resolution (RSL.L) reported weaker sales at Friends Provident, its first acquisition, and said an end to growth in the life market had opened up further deal opportunities.
Friends Provident had sales of 873 million pounds in 2009, down 13 percent from 1 billion pounds the previous year, Resolution said on Thursday.
Analysts had expected sales of 760 million pounds, according to the average of six forecasts collected by the company.
Resolution added that the British life market had stopped growing, underscoring the need for industry rationalisation.
"The UK business continued to reflect a market which we believe is ex-growth," Resolution Chief Executive John Tiner said.
"This dynamic continues to demonstrate the need for consolidation of the UK life insurance industry."
Resolution was founded by insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery in 2008 to acquire and merge British life insurance and asset management companies.
The company bought Friends Provident for 1.8 billion pounds last year, and has said it aims to buy at least two more insurers or asset managers before selling the enlarged business in 2012.
Resolution shares closed at 74 pence on Wednesday, valuing the company at about 1.8 billion pounds.
Click here to view the 'Resolution sees weaker Friends sales' article on the Reuters website.
Pension fund risks heightened by recession
Tues Jan 19, 2010 17:42 GMT
From the BBC News website
The recession has produced a "marked rise" in the risk of pension schemes going bust, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has warned.
It blamed a deterioration in scheme funding, poorer economic prospects and a higher risk of employers going bust.
The comments came in the PPF's annual review of final-salary pension schemes, published with the Pensions Regulator.
The review, known as the Purple Book, says the rate of company liquidations has risen by 50% in the past two years.
"The Insolvency Services' company liquidation rate rose from 0.6% in the 12 months to the first quarter of 2008, to 0.8% in the 12 months to the first quarter of 2009, with a further rise to 0.9% by the third quarter," it said.
Increased risk
The 2008-09 financial year saw dramatic changes in the financial outlook for final-salary pension schemes, which largely rely on their investment returns to pay their current and future pensioners.
The recession, which started in the spring of 2008, caused a 5% drop in the UK's economic output by the first quarter of 2009.
Not only did this provoke a sharp upturn in company insolvencies, it also led to a 29% drop in the value of the 100 share-index.
This was accompanied by a sharp drop in the yield on government bonds, which meant that schemes had to assume a much higher cost for paying their pensions in the future.
"The recession increased the risk of insolvency for companies sponsoring defined-benefit schemes while financial market movements worsened scheme funding," the Purple Book pointed out.
More closures
In the year to 31 March 2009, more business had come the way of the PPF, with 240 schemes under assessment at that point for potential rescue, compared with 217 schemes at the same stage a year earlier.
The Purple Book noted the continued trend of shutting schemes to new recruits.
"The proportion of schemes open to new membership and new accrual continues to decline," it said.
"Open schemes constitute 27% of the Purple 2009 sample, down from 31% in 2008 and 36% in 2007."
Meanwhile 21% were closed to existing members as well as new ones.
The pension consultants Towers Watson said it was mainly small pension schemes that had closed to existing members before 2009, with few large employers having taken this step.
However, Towers Watson said last year could mark a "tipping point" and that more large employers would close their schemes to current staff in 2010.
"2009 saw a host of household names close their defined schemes to existing members, and more will follow," said Mark Duke, of Towers Watson.
At the end of March 2009, the private sector's final-salary schemes had a collective deficit of £201bn.
Since then, things have improved and the most recent figures from the PPF reveal that the deficit of schemes covered by the Purple Book had shrunk to £78bn at the end of last October.
'Dramatic deterioration'
The Purple Book, in its fourth year of publication, looks at the condition of 6,885 final salary pension schemes, mainly in the private sector.
They amount to 97% of the schemes that are obliged to send annual returns on their finances to the Pensions Regulator.
"This year's Purple Book highlights how the dramatic deterioration in the economic and financial environment during 2008-09, not just for the UK but for most major economies, led to heightened risk for the schemes in the PPF universe," said the PPF's chief executive, Alan Rubenstein.
The Pension Regulator's chief executive, Tony Hobman, said: "The data reflects the situation faced by schemes up to March 2009."
"While there has since been an upturn in the financial markets, we remain alive to the risks and continue to work with schemes on their recovery plans," he added.
Click here to view the 'Pension fund risks heightened by recession' article on the BBC News website.
High Finance Group is a recruitment and Executive Search company, based in London, working on UK, European and Bermudian jobs.
