Aegon is cutting its sales force and support roles by 160 with immediate effect and will be closing all six regional sales centres over the next six months.
The life company made the announcement to staff in a meeting today.
All regional office will be closed for today in order to conduct individual meetings, and will re-open tomorrow.
Aegon managing director of retail Duncan Jarrett, said: "The distribution structure has served us fantastically well in the past, but we must evolve to provide for the adviser community, helping us to strengthen and develop profitable relationships for the future."
Aegon said the reshuffle was brought about by a move to focus on its core markets of workplace savings and at-retirement through its Aegon Retirement Choices (ARC) platform.
Investment will be made in key areas of the operating model including building the capability to service the ARC platform in Edinburgh, the life company said.
The number of platform implementation roles will increase from 19 to 42. In total, 43 new sales roles will be created, with a particular emphasis on the platform.
