Standard Life plc has recorded an eleven per cent decrease in pension sales for the year 2008.

The group has also said its UK life and pensions sales of £12.2bn were nine per cent lower than 2007, with the fourth quarter seeing sales of 25 per cent less than 2007.

Standard Life has attributed this to lower transfer values.
Group pensions sales decreased by five per cent to £2.8bn, which Standard Life said principally reflects lower asset values and increment levels.

However, despite the gloomy outcome for overall life and pensions sales, individual self-invested personal pensions (SIPP) funds under administration increased by 13 per cent to £8.7bn, with customer numbers growing by 41 per cent to 65,900. The average case size across the group's SIPP portfolio was £131,000.

Interestingly, SIPP sales throughout the otherwise poorly performing fourth quarter increased by 4,900. Group SIPP volumes increased by 21 per cent and accounted for 31 per cent of total Group pensions sales over 2008.

Paul Matthews, managing director and responsible for UK distribution at Standard Life plc, told Pensions Age that they saw 2008 as a "strong performance in a very challenging year".

Matthews said the success they saw came from three main markets: corporate pensions; SIPPs; and investments through the asset gathering wrap platform.

The company, he said, is "cautious but optimistic for 2009, in that we are confident that we've got a strong presence in the core pensions market, we've got a good pipeline, and we expect more companies to move away from final salary to money purchase, so we believe we're strongly positioned there."

Matthews revealed that Standard Life has some further developments to its SIPP market propositions, and that their wrap platform puts them in good stead to gather up customers who will be looking towards a more financially transparent 2009.

Meanwhile, Friends Provident also reported a downturn on life and pensions new business, which fell by 11 per cent to £1,005million APE, with the fourth quarter of 2008 down four per cent on an APE basis. UK group pensions distributors saw 26 scheme wins in the fourth quarter, and these are expected to deliver around £20million of APE during the first half of 2009.

Legal and General, however, recorded a more positive non-profit pension growth, boosted by SIPP sales, up by 30 per cent to £328million.

- Pensions Age January 2009

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