Aegon will stop writing annuities later this year after signing a deal with Legal & General (L&G) to takeover setting up new contracts.
Aegon sold £3 billion of its UK annuity portfolio to L&G in May. It has now agreed that L&G will also write all new Aegon annuity business from October.
Any safeguarded benefits like guaranteed annuity rates or guaranteed minimum pensions will continue after L&G sets up the annuity instead of Aegon, while customers without a guarantee can get a new annuity quote from L&G as Aegon’s ‘preferred supplier’.
‘Not having been an active player in the annuity market for some time, it made perfect sense to sell our £9 billion annuity portfolio and concentrate on accelerating the growth of our platform and protection businesses,’ Aegon UK chief executive Adrian Grace (pictured) said. ‘
The deal supports our strategy of focussing on platform growth and providing choice for our customers.’
One month before the £3 billion sale to L&G, Aegon sold another £6 billion of its annuity portfolio to Rothesay Life. At the time, the deals left Aegon with around £1 billion of annuities remaining on its books.
Source: City Wire