The Friends Life brand will be dropped next year, two years after the provider was merged into Aviva.
Aviva UK & Ireland Life CEO Andy Briggs says the Friends brand has been maintained in the corporate pension space until 2017 because of its heritage and strong reputation amongst intermediaries, employers and customers in the large employer sector. Briggs says another reason for the delay is to save cost, by enabling the Friends rebrand to form part of a broader programme of customer communication that will take place in 2017.
Briggs says 2017 will also see corporate pensions customers connected into its MyAviva app service, which gives 20 per cent discounts to existing Aviva customers on certain new insurance products.
Friends Life was formed in 2008 by Clive Cowdery, when his Resolution vehicle merged Friends Provident with UK life assurance businesses from Axa and Bupa. Aviva agreed the purchase of Friends Life in December 2014 in a £5.6bn share takeover.
Friends Provident was founded in 1832 in Bradford by Quakers.