portman will by entering into an agreement with Friends Provident for the provision of protection products.
This development complements the existing strong relationship with Norwich Union, which will continue to provide the Society’s investment product offering.
The protection range covers Life, Critical Illness and Income Protection products.
Friends Provident was selected following an exhaustive review of the protection market. The Portman’s key criteria were:
- competitive pricing;
- high standards of customer service;
- modern efficient processes;
- a real commitment to treating customers fairly;
- demonstrable strength in systems delivery and integration;
- particular expertise in the bancassurance sector.
Friends Provident scored highly across all the criteria. In particular, Friends Provident’s e-commerce capabilities are at the leading edge of developments in the protection market.
This completes the second phase of Portman’s development of its financial services customer proposition following its strategic decision to move to multi-tie status. Earlier in the year the Society completed the first phase of development by assuming control of its financial planning sales force and associated compliance responsibilities.
Matthew Wyles, group development director at Portman said: “in Friends Provident and Norwich Union we have two partners of formidable quality whose propositions are highly complementary. Our financial planning business is delivering a strong performance and the introduction of Friends Provident’s excellent products and outstanding service will make us even more successful during 2006”.
Simon Clamp, managing director, UK sales and marketing said “We are delighted to be selected by Portman to be the provider of their protection business. This is another opportunity for Friends Provident to increase its distribution capability and demonstrate our 5 star award-winning service, quality products backed by market leading technology to an ever increasing audience”.
