Royal London With Profits
RWP Research Findings, Overview and Comments
In considering any company and its with-profits RWP will look to assess a range of factors which will include: the company’s management record; its transparency of information, its financial strength; its prospects for providing future returns and the nature of its with-profits approach.
In this regard we believe that Royal London can be classed as one of the poorer with-profits companies.
The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Ltd runs a series of 10 with-profits funds, housing some of the biggest names from the market, from the past decades. They are one of the UK’s biggest ‘consolidators’ of older with-profits companies and funds.
Names such as Scottish Life, United Friendly, Royal Liver and Refuge Assurance are now all contained within this structure.
Our view, findings and comments are based on the general and typical position of the various funds and policies under the Royal London banner. With such a large group and with so many companies, different types of funds and policy, with so many different terms there is, by its very nature, a whole range of good, bad and indifferent experiences (and future prospects).
We feel, however, on balance, the majority of the money housed under the Royal London umbrella has generally been poor with most plans and policy types providing below average returns.
Some policies retain favourable guarantee terms, but it does not appear these are widespread.
There is provision to apply MVRs (penalties) across most policies and MVRs have been applied quite widely at different times in the past five years.
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Company ownership position
Royal London is the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK, with Group funds under management of £84.5 billion, providing around 9.1 million policies and employing around 3,000 people. (Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2015). A mutual is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders.
Company history
The Company traces its route back to Refuge Assurance, one of the earliest industrial assurance offices, founded as a Friendly Society in 1858.
In 1861 Royal London founded as a Friendly Society in a London coffee shop by Henry Ridge and Joseph Degge.
In 1881 Scottish Life was founded in Edinburgh as a Proprietary Company. And in 1908 United Friendly was founded in Southwark by Edwin Richard Balding.
United Friendly and Refuge Assurance merge to form United Assurance Group.
In 2000 Royal London acquires United Assurance Group for £1.6bn. In 2001 Scottish Life demutualised. Royal London acquires Scottish Life for £1.1bn.
In 2014 all the previous mergers, takeovers and consolidations were effectively subsumed into one brand name: Royal London.
With-profits funds run by the company
Under the current structure there are these funds:
- Royal London IB & OB Sub-fund
- United Friendly OB Sub-fund
- United Friendly IB Sub-fund
- Refuge Assurance IB Sub-fund
- Scottish Life Closed Fund
- PLAL With-Profits Sub-Fund
- Royal Liver Sub-Fund
- RLCIS OB & IB Fund
- RLCIS With-Profits Stakeholder Fund
- RLCIS With-Profits Pension Fund
For the latest with-profits bonus information please click here:
http://www.royallondon.com/customers/
For information on how Royal London approach the management of their with-profits please click here:
http://www.royallondon.com/customers/
Please remember that any of our summary findings or conclusions are general; an appraisal of the general position for that company. There will be situations where an individual policyholder with a company that is ‘good’’ may want to look at surrendering or transferring their policy (for example to secure a guarantee or because it does not suit their risk position), likewise there will be situations where policyholders with a ‘poor’ company want to stick with what they have (for example because the penalty of exiting will be too great). Nothing can replace getting a report based on your unique circumstances; it is only this unique, personalised report which will provide the information that will instruct you on your circumstances regardless of the company and our general comments.
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Please note the information on these pages should not be used in any way or form as the basis for any decision about your with-profits investment or plan. RWP makes every attempt to ensure that all information is up to date and accurate but RWP cannot be held responsible for any of the detail provided. The information above is published to act as a broad guide to the Company’s position, history and future prospects. However any decision about your own with-profit plan should only be taken after you have sought and received qualified advice from an appropriate regulated advisory source and should be based entirely on that advice.