Royal London Promises Pensions Market Innovation
Royal London Ireland (RLI) has the number one position in the Irish broker protection market, and recently became the first life assurance company to enter the Irish pensions market in over 30 years, and the first new pension provider in over a decade.
Mark Reilly, Pension Propositions Lead, notes that there has been a gradual reduction in pension market participants in recent years. “Brokers see this reduction in providers as a negative,” Reilly adds. “A new entrant with a strong track record of product and systems innovation and excellent service is seen as a positive development.”
The initial RLI products are a Personal Retirement Bond and an Approved Retirement Fund. Reilly says both products offer a range of unique features such as automatic portfolio rebalancing, ValueShare, and a ‘sliding scale’ approach to annual management charges and allocation rates.
“There is an easy-to-understand and keenly priced choice of 12 product variations, centred on a unique ‘sliding scale’ trade-off between allocation rates and annual management charges,” Reilly explains.
“ValueShare is a unique feature that
provides a boost that may be added to our pensions customers’ fund returns in years that the company does well. Once paid, it belongs to the customer and can never be taken away.
“Our parent company is a major provider of pensions in the UK and ValueShare replicates a similar feature available to their pension customers, and that has paid out each year since it began.”
In the UK, Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions provider, looking after over 21,000 workplace pension schemes with c.1.6 million members.
The RLI fund shelf offers a choice of 17 active and passive funds, with eight provided by Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) and nine by BlackRock. RLAM provide four risk targeted multi-asset funds which were designed specifically for the Irish market.
To build the pension offering, Reilly says that brokers will have a personal pensions case manager who can look after all queries through new business and claims. “They will also support brokers in their online quotes and applications, pipeline management, general policy servicing and payments out,” says Reilly.
“The reaction from brokers to date has been hugely positive and we have been delighted with the response, particularly with the level of new business we have seen across PRBs and ARFs in the few weeks since we have launched.”