Announcing its 2024 financial results last week, ICMIF member Royal London (UK) said it will be distributing GBP 181 million in ProfitShare payout with 2.3 million of its customers. This will be the ninth consecutive year that the mutual has boosted its customers’ retirement savings through its ProfitShare scheme.
Each year, Royal London aims to boost its customers’ retirement savings through ProfitShare, a discretionary enhancement for eligible Royal London customers. The allocation is considered annually and is dependent on a number of factors.
Barry O’Dwyer, Group Chief Executive Officer, Royal London and member of ICMIF’s Board of Directors said: “Royal London is customer-owned and is run for the benefit of customers, not shareholders. We share our profits with eligible customers and our ProfitShare scheme will distribute GBP 181m to 2.3 million customers in April. This was underpinned by the business delivering an 11% increase in operating profit to GBP 277m in 2024.
“Our customer focus means we continually enhance our offerings and digital services to help customers build their financial resilience, often partnering with independent financial advisers. We have recently launched an innovative new online application process for individual pensions business, making it substantially easier for advisers to work with us. Our customer-first approach also appeals to employers wanting to pick the best possible offering and, in 2024, nearly 1,000 employers chose to establish a Royal London Workplace Pension scheme, very often moving from a shareholder-owned competitor.
“2024 also saw Royal London enter the bulk purchase annuity market, giving trustees the option of choosing the only customer-owned provider in this market,” O’Dwyer concluded.
Other 2024 highlights for Royal London
Royal London has introduced a range of digital improvements to support customers to build their financial resilience, including a new contribution guidance tool and further enhancements to its pension consolidation service, helping to deliver a 39% increase in the number of Workplace Pension transfers.
Continuing to enhance its digital offering for financial advisers, the mutual launched a new online service that makes it easier for advisers to deal with Royal London, including streamlined and intuitive ‘quote and apply’ functionality for new business.
Royal London paid 98.7% (2023: 99.0%) of protection claims, delivering GBP 751m to over 65,000 customers and their families in the UK and Ireland.
The company said the investment performance of actively managed funds remained good, with 60% (2023: 96%) outperforming their three-year benchmark on an AUM weighted basis and 81% of funds (2023: 89%) outperforming on an equally weighted basis.
Customer satisfaction, as measured by Royal London’s Customer Value Statement (CVS5) score, was up 3 percentage points over the year, and 11 percentage points since 2020, with an average of 43% of customers rating Royal London 9 or 10 out of 10 across each of seven key measures.
Royal London continued to support a number of social impact initiatives with donations of GBP 2.8m, including Cancer Research UK, to help tackle cancer inequalities and Turn2us, a national charity working to address financial insecurity across the UK.
Royal London’s business in Ireland delivered a 29% growth in new business sales of protection and pensions products, up to GBP 297m.
