His appointment follows the sale of a majority stake in Key to Phoenix Equity Partners which has invested to support plans for accelerated growth at the company which is already established as the UK’s number one equity release adviser as well as a top 5 annuity broker and a leading innovative equity release lender through more 2 life.
He joins from The Markets & International Banking Division at RBS, where he was managing director, head of UK Insurance Coverage.
Previously he worked in the Financial Institutions Group at UBS Investment Bank and at PwC and has extensive strategic advisory, transaction and capital markets experience in the UK financial services sector. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Colin Taylor, chief executive of Key Retirement Solutions, said: “The appointment of Simon is another important step in delivering our strategy of building Key into the trusted brand for the over-55s in the retirement segment of financial services.”
Thompson added: “Key has exciting development ambitions, focused on offering financial products and services which are important elements in meeting customers’ retirement objectives.
“The business has strong plans for growth and I look forward to working with the team to help deliver them.”
Key has experienced consistent growth and expansion plans include potential new product launches and possible acquisitions building on recent deals that have included the launch of a home buying and selling service Keymove Property Services.