Aegon has today appointed Lorna Blyth to the newly created position of investment proposition director, joining from Royal London where she was head of investment solutions.
She will be responsible for driving plans to develop Aegon’s investment credentials including enhancements to workplace investment propositions and growth of Aegon investment business sales.
Blyth has more than 20 years of experience in the investments industry, the last 15 years of which were at Royal London where she was responsible for investment strategy, communications and working with sales teams and advisers to deliver solutions for customers.
Over the last 18 months Aegon has expanded its investment solutions team which actively manages £60bn of funds and oversees a total of £180bn across the company’s business lines. Last year it launched its Risk Managed Portfolios, the company’s first multi-wrapper OEIC range for financial advisers.
There have also been significant changes to its default fund range for workplace savers in recent months with the addition of an ESG strategy to both the Aegon Retirement Choices and TargetPlan propositions as Aegon committed to making its defaults funds net carbon neutral by 2050.
Blyth will report into Tim Orton, managing director for investment solutions at Aegon.
Orton says: “Lorna brings a great deal of experience and an excellent track record to the new role and we look forward to welcoming her to the team. Her appointment is another step towards bolstering Aegon’s growing investment capabilities and she will play an important role in developing our investment proposition for both financial advisers and workplace savers.”
Blyth says: “I am delighted to be joining Aegon at such an exciting time. With advisers increasingly turning to multi-asset funds to meet client needs, I believe there is a great deal that we can do to build on the offer in this area as well as addressing the growth of ESG which is already very significant in the workplace and growing consideration in the adviser market.”
