Canada Life scraps onshore bond and personal pension

Canada Life has this morning closed its onshore bond and personal pension plan to new business with immediate effect after the company decided it could no longer be competitive in the areas.

It said: “We intend to close to new business while we enter a period of consultation with impacted employees.”

When asked how many employees will be impacted a Canada Life spokesman said: “A small number of roles are at risk.” He added that no offices will be closed as a result of the move.

The onshore bond, known as The Select Account, has around 17,000 customers while the personal pension plan, known as The Retirement Account, has 5,000 customers.

Canada Life said despite the closures it remains committed to the UK market, but where it can operate at scale and be competitive. It said it has identified “significant growth opportunities” in the UK offshore bond market, and will target resources in this area moving forward.

It said it will also operate in the areas of individual annuities, equity release, group protection, bulk purchase annuities and asset management.

Sean Christian, MD and executive director for wealth at Canada Life UK said: “We’ve always said we will compete where we can reach scale and be competitive, and it has become clear we need to take the decision to close these products, which represent less than 1% of our customer base. 

“While we recognise this will leave some advisers disappointed, it does mean we can focus on areas of profitable growth, where we can leverage our resource to deliver a better experience for advisers and their clients, including our UK offshore bond range, via our businesses in the Isle of Man and Ireland.”

He said the company sees “significant potential to grow our market share in the offshore space via UK advisers, where we think the market is presently underserved.”

The company said the closure of the onshore bond follows a trend of an overall decline in the market, with advisers preferring open-architecture products available on platforms, alongside the relative attractiveness of other tax wrappers and savings options.

It said the personal pension remained a small and niche product in a very competitive market segment, and would require significant additional investment to generate the sales volumes required to make it profitable.

The offshore bond will continue to be actively marketed and sold, from both the Isle of Man and Dublin, with no changes to the product or overall proposition. Canada Life said any pipeline business which advisers chose to complete will be honoured for both onshore bonds and The Retirement Account, within any quote guarantee periods.

Half of the customers using The Retirement Account are using it as a flexible annuity only, Canada Life said. In total, they represent less than 1% of Canada Life UK’s overall customer base.