Friends Provident Quits Wealth Management

Friends Provident Quits Wealth Management

Friends Provident is to quit the Wealth Management sector in a bid to improve profitability.

Friends Provident is pulling out of wealth management and will focus resources on group pensions, protection and offshore business.  It will sell its 53 per cent stake in F and C Asset Management, its wealth management arm Lombard and high-net-worth IFA Pantheon.  

Ben Gunn, Life and pensions chief executive says they will take a more selective approach on group pensions by ending initial commission on new schemes and focusing on acquiring bigger schemes.  It is also investigating whether to close its with-profits fund to new business.  The company aims to reduce costs by £40m by the end of 2009 and will cut staff numbers by 600.  

Our view

Financial services is competitive across all sectors and providers have to be committed 100% in a sector to succeed and recognise when they are not competitive.  We applaud Friends Provident for making this decision.  They have also made announcements to changes in strategy for pensions.

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