Friends Provident

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Ownership Position / Status: - info

Friends Provident Life and Pensions Ltd is part of the Friends Provident Group.

With Profits Funds: -

They have an umbrella under which sits a range of funds, conventional and unit -linked, open and closed. They have embraced quite a few old companies such as NM Life and also manage the with-profits of London and Manchester.

Guarantees: -

There are some good guarantees within their fund range, investors should seek out more detail wherever possible because these guarantees cover a number of different products and could be valuable at the relevant times.

Features: -

Again, as with the guarantees, they have good product features making their funds amongst the most flexible and valuable to plan holders but these must be understood fully for plan holders to get maximum benefit.

Performance: -

Their historic performance varies from product to product but overall they have barely managed to get any significant above average returns and in many cases get well below average returns. We rate them overall just below average.

Future Prospects: -

At the time of writing it seems that a deal with Resolution may be in the offing, referred to as a merger this is in our view an effective takeover by Resolution. Is this good for plan holders? Probably not in our view, if we look at other resolution deals: good for shareholders, yes, but with-profit plan holders, probably no.

EWP Rating: -

Past Performance: - 4/10
  Future Prospects: - 4/10
  Transparency / Information: - 4/5
  Financial Strength: - 3/5
  Features: - 4/5
 
  TOTAL 19/35
  RANKING  

EWP Comments: -

Friends Provident have the perfect mix for investors to look at their options far more closely, relatively poor past performance, questionable prospects, but good features and guarantees. This means investors should definitely get to grips with their policy terms because there may well be more options than first appear. We suspect that the Friends Provident performance will remain lame as the company seems to have its focus elsewhere.

This is the exitwith-profits overall view of the company and its funds, aiming to give investors a summary view of how we assess the company following the conclusion of our in depth research.

These are the exitwith-profits ratings for each of the various categories as above. More prominence is given to the performance and prospects than the others.

This is our assessment, based on weighing up all the factors relating to the company’s financial strength, their commitment to with-profits, their performance history, and history of MVRS (penalties): all leading to a subjective view of how we believe the funds are set for the future. This view should be considered our assessment, which aims to help investors, but should not be relied upon in any way and should not replace the value of getting an independent tailored review undertaken.

This is an assessment of how the company’s funds have performed overall in the past.

This is an indicator of whether the funds have useful or relevant features and how they improve the position.

This highlights and indicates whether the company have funds that have valuable guarantees.

This section summarises the type and range of funds that the company oversees.

This explains the ownership of the company, whether it is a PLC, a subsidiary of another company or a mutual organisation.