Friends Provident announced today a review of its with profits bonus rates. The key points are:
- A good year for with profits
- All final bonus rates either increased or unchanged
- With profits payouts generally higher
- Regular bonus rates maintained
- Gross investment return on the With Profits Fund of 9.3% in 2009
- Market Value Reductions removed from almost all lines of business
Friends Provident is committed to treating the holders of its 1.1 million with profits policies fairly and this bonus announcement ensures payouts from the With Profits Fund reflect the value of the underlying investments.
Andy Carr, Friends Provident chief actuary, said: “Investment markets continued to be volatile in 2009, as they were for much of 2008, but staged a recovery in the second half of the year. Thanks to this, payouts for the majority of our policyholders have increased compared to last year. To illustrate this, the experience of most policyholders will be that the cashable value of their plans will have increased by around 10% in February 2010 compared to February 2009.
“The recovery in the second half of 2009 has also meant Market Value Reductions (MVRs), reintroduced in October 2008, have now been removed on virtually all products”.
