In Royal London’s interim results, it said protection growth was also supported by the “strength and quality” of its proposition.
The report noted that around 98.5% of protection claims were paid to around 33,000 customers, which is in line with 98.9% of claims last year.
Paid-out protection claims came to £415m, which compares to £355m in the first half of last year.
Royal London said it had seen “further momentum in high-net-worth business”, and it had expanded its protection proposition to support estate planning needs.
This included the launch of its joint life second death term in 2024 and its whole-of-life offering seeing strong demand following the changes to inheritance tax proposed in the October Budget.
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The operating profit before tax stood at £166m, which is up 15% annually, which it attributed to protection new business and sales of its new bulk purchase annuity (BPA) proposition.
Barry O’Dwyer, Royal London’s group CEO, said: “For six years running, Royal London has been the most preferred personal pension provider by financial advisers, testament to the strength and quality of our customer propositions. Our new bulk purchase annuity offering, the only mutual option in the market, is also resonating well with trustees and advisers, as we completed eight buy-in transactions in the first half of this year.
“Support from financial advisers has meant our Governed Range attracted £1.6bn of net inflows in the first half of the year. This range offers valuable diversification for customers amid market volatility with allocations to assets such as real estate and commodities. The recently announced acquisition of Dalmore Capital will also provide access for Governed Range customers to the long-term, stable returns that infrastructure investments can offer.
“When most of our competitors perform well, they reward their shareholders with higher dividends. Royal London is a mutual with no shareholders, so when we perform well, our eligible customers benefit through ProfitShare. In April, we demonstrated the value of mutuality by sharing £181m with 2.3 million customers through our ProfitShare scheme.”
