It is expected that around 200 of Bradford & Bingley's existing wealth advisers and support staff will transfer to Legal & General from 3 December and will offer advice to customers as Legal & General advisers from 17 January 2005.
This is an important step in the refocus and growth of the Bradford & Bingley retail business and will enable Bradford & Bingley to take full advantage of expected changes in the regulatory regime.
It means that Bradford & Bingley customers seeking advice on pension, protection and investment products will be referred to a resident Legal & General adviser who will offer advice on a range of Legal & General products. Post depolarisation, the investment product offering will be broadened to offer a range of funds from a variety of leading fund managers using Legal & General's open architecture platform.
The partnership with Legal & General will enable Bradford & Bingley to extend the range of wealth services it offers, introducing greater expertise in IHT and retirement planning. The relationship will also provide scope for the Group to offer jointly manufactured products building on the product development strength of the two organisations.
Commenting on the announcement Steven Crawshaw, Bradford & Bingley Group Chief Executive, said: "A partnership with Legal & General will give us access to their world class sales management and product suite. It will enable us to deliver a strong range of products with extremely high service standards and swift processing. It will be another important step in the simplification of our Retail business and we believe this change will give rise to a better retail proposition for our customers and for Bradford & Bingley."
David Prosser, Legal & General Group Chief Executive, said: "In the run-up to depolarisation we are pleased that Bradford & Bingley has been attracted to Legal & General's value for money product proposition and our core skill and expertise in managing large partnership arrangements.
"Legal & General is committed to providing good value competitively priced products for the customers of our partners, both in protection and investment products. Through the use of technology, we see the opportunity for continuing to improve investment choice via cost efficient open architecture and process simplification in selling life assurance. We believe Legal & General is well placed to grow its market share in a depolarised world."
Bradford & Bingley's Retail business offers one of the widest ranges of financial services products and providers on the High Street. Product lines include: Bradford & Bingley savings products; "multi-tie" broking of general insurance, personal loans and motor insurance; Legal & General retirement, IHT and protection products; and, following depolarisation, a "multi-fund" range of investment products arranged through Legal & General. Bradford & Bingley will monitor the mortgage broking market following "M-Day" with a view to move to a "multi-tie" proposition by early 2005.
