Canada Life UK has pledged to invest more in technology and systems to improve processes for advisers and clients.
The life and pensions company will be bringing on 30 staff members and developing new technology solutions to help modernise existing processes.
Earlier this week (Tuesday 22), FTAdviser reported on Canada Life UK’s first-half results, which showed a dramatic increase in sales, especially in annuities.
This has led Canada Life UK to scale up its resources to help meet the large volume of needs from clients.
Nick Flynn, retirement income director at Canada Life, told FTAdviser: “The increase in popularity of annuities is largely due to increased interest rates and yields, but also the demand for guaranteed income in these uncertain times.
“We view this environment will continue for some period ahead, so we will increase and develop our teams to suit the economic environment. The scale-up firmly supports the direction of travel for Canada Life.”
Canada Life has also increased staff levels by relocating existing staff and also bringing on approximately 30 staff members.
Flynn said the company’s staff addition had been increasing "at pace" over the past six to nine months, but now the company was viewing developing technology solutions as more "key to completing medium-term goals".
He said: “We are looking to modernise and improve existing processes, with our focus on meeting the needs of today’s clients as volumes of enquiries and applications continue to increase."
One particular area of interest is the company's new business processes, in particular requesting the client's funds from other insurers.
Generally across the industry, as reported previously by FTAdviser, transferring funds can be time-consuming for advisers and clients.
Flynn added: "Canada Life is also focusing on improving business processes and supporting clients who are keen to receive income. The firm wants to fully support annuity clients who will become clients for life."
It is understood the scale-up could significantly aid advisers as they want to improve quotation turnaround times for potential new clients and advisers.
He also said the provider was going to promote its existing Online Annuity Quotation Portals, which can provide instant whole-of-market quotations to advisers.
Flynn added: "Now annuities are back in fashion everybody needs to use the technology available. I hope this can also step up in the future."
Background
In July, Canada Life confirmed its UK division was undergoing a reorganisation as part of its modernisation programme, which has resulted in job losses.
The company said some new roles would be created as well as job losses, so it was currently unable to confirm the scale of those redundancies.
However, one of these redundancies included Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, who left the business at the end of July.
Theo Gray is doing work experience at FTAdviser.
