Friends Provident has entered a partnership with Countrywide Assured Group, signing an exclusive pr...
Friends Provident has entered a partnership with Countrywide Assured Group, signing an exclusive protection distribution deal.
Countrywide has bought Friends Provident's 104 estate agencies for £21m and signed a 15-year deal to distribute the insurer's mortgage-related protection products through its 738 estate agency branches and 650 consultants.
Countrywide will, as part of the deal, stop manufacturing these products itself.
Ben Gunn, managing director of Friends Provident Life and Pensions, said: 'This new partnership is with one of the UK's largest national estate agencies and mortgage-related financial services distributors.
'We will continue to look for quality distribution opportunities of this type to build our life and pensions business.
'Countrywide is a successful operation and will provide a good source of additional new business with attractive margins and the potential for further business growth in the future.'
Countrywide has no links to the Misys IFA network of the same name.
It comprises five divisions ' estate agents, financial services, life assurance, conveyancing and commercial and professional services. The provider is expecting £250m in commission over the term of the new deal.
Friends Provident inherited its estate agencies, all based in the South of England, as they were originally part of the operations of the London and Manchester Group which Friends Provident bought in 1998.
The deal follows Friends Provident's aim of expanding and diversifying distribution through working with strategic partners.
