Standard Life plans to target consumers directly

David Nish, chief executive of Standard Life, has said the Edinburgh-based pension and investment group wants to increase its direct contact with customers.

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by Michelle McGagh on Sep 13, 2010 at 09:12

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Standard Life plans to target consumers directly

David Nish, chief executive of Standard Life, has said the Edinburgh-based pension and investment group wants to increase its direct contact with customers.

Nish, who took over at the company nearly a year ago, said Standard Life would continue to support its long-standing association with IFAs but wanted to explore other avenues including direct to consumer and through employers.

‘I want to bring the outside world into Standard Life,’ Nish told the Mail on Sunday.

‘We’re doing something we’ve never done before which is talk to customers.

‘We don’t serve 70% of the market, those people who don’t use advisers. That’s daft.’

His comments follow the company's announcement at its half-year results in August that it planned to launch an online investment service for the mass market this autumn. We dubbed the move as Standard's attempt to reach the 'holy grail'.

Nish reiterated Standard Life’s move away from insurance by telling the paper: ‘I’m not running an insurance company. We’re a long term savings and investment business.

‘I want to distance ourselves from being viewed as an insurer – of being slow, not consumer-orientated and not understanding the long-term savings market.’

He predicted the next decade will be focused on savings and not insurance.

‘We must construct appropriate savings and investment vehicles to help people accumulate for retirement,’ he said. ‘If we do this, Britain can be a genuinely exciting place for Standard Life to do business.’

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5 comments so far. Why not have your say?

It would be interesting to see if Standard Life can confirm in writing to all those IFAs signed up to their wrap exactly who "owns" the clients.

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Yes I will leave a comment. The biggest mistake I ever made was to place my SIPPS and ISAs in the Standard Life WRAP account. It was rubbish and when I tried to leave I had to fight them for eight months to get my money back. They actually had some of my investments in a separate account of which i had no knowledge. I am now with Hargreaves Lansdown and they are like a breath of fresh air with their highly efficient investment packages and low costs.

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Do Standard Life think they have left it long enough for people to forget about their endowment policies? Mis sold and no compensation as it was sold prioir to 1988, I still have the illustrations that show up to £80,000 for £35/month in 1984, ehh we got less than £25,000, it didnt even meet the original mortgage. We have long memories, tell your children dont go there!

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Standard Life's performance in its endowment policies has been deplorable.

Don't touch them with a barge pole. Keith Skeoch used to be at brokers James Capel many years ago, where he had a good reputation (he even interviewed me for a job there!). Sadly , his pay has gone up and his performance and reputation has gone down - to the detriment of Standard Life endowment policy holders and share holders.

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Peter Imbert

Sep 14, 2010 at 05:41

-actually investment is all about timing

I drew my Standard Life pension at age 60 now 72 and have now reached

the point of full return. So SL ride on "Do it Now" -

Do you have an age cut off point for new recruits-laughs.

Ex Hambro Life man here

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