What’s happening
We’re proposing to transfer our individual protection business, which includes life insurance, critical illness and income protection policies to Royal London (The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited).
Following a strategic review, we (Aegon, which is a brand name of Scottish Equitable plc) made the decision to simplify our business by selling and transferring our individual protection business to Royal London, so we can focus on the pension and investment markets.
What this means for our policyholders
The relevant policies of the individual protection business will be transferred to Royal London, who will be responsible for the transferring policies after the transfer takes effect.
Making sure our policyholders’ interests are protected is a key priority. We’re following a legal process that involves consulting with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), an Independent Expert and seeking approval from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in London (the Court).
- The proposed sale and transfer will only take place if it’s approved by the Court.
- There’ll be no changes to the policy information. The policy conditions, policy benefits, payments and any guarantees or options on your policy will stay the same.
- Policyholders have the right to raise concerns or objections if they think they’ll be adversely affected by the proposed transfer.
Why we chose Royal London to take our protection business forward
Royal London is the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK. It looks after 8.1 million UK policies and has £153 billion in assets under management (as at September 2023). Royal London has significant experience and expertise in managing this type of business, as well as a commitment to supporting our values.
Timeline
The transfer will only go ahead if the Court approves. If this happens, we expect the transfer to take place on 1 July 2024.
March - April 2024
Policyholders sent a notification letter.
14 June 2024
Final hearing at the High Court (London).
1 July 2024
Subject to Court approval, policies will transfer to Royal London.
If policyholders need to make a claim under their policy
Until the transfer is complete, policyholders can contact us in the usual way to make a claim.
After the proposed transfer is implemented, Royal London will be the new provider of the transferring policies and will assess any future claims and pay any policy benefits if the claim is accepted.
Direct debit arrangements
Policies transferring won’t need to do anything or make any changes to their direct debit arrangement.
If your policy is transferring, you’ll see a change on your bank statement after the transfer is implemented, with your premiums or any claim payments changing so they’re to or from Royal London. This will happen automatically after the transfer takes place.
When you first set up a direct debit, there's a guarantee offered by all banks and building societies. The Direct Debit Guarantee has been updated and will take effect if the transfer is implemented. A copy of the updated Direct Debit Guarantee is in Appendix 1 of our Transfer guide.
International policyholders
If your policy is transferring and you took out this policy with us when you were a UK resident, but now reside outside of the UK, there’ll be no change to your policy information. Your policy will be treated the same and follow the transfer process as if you were still living in the UK.