Life Offices’ Financial Strength Update

Introduction

Life offices have recently filed their FSA Returns, setting out their financial position at the end of 2004. These are a rich source of information, given added interest this year because the larger withprofits offices have had to report their Realistic Balance Sheets (RBS) for the first time. This Executive Briefing sets out Deloitte’s summary of the key data. The analysis covers all but a very few of the UK’s large with-profit funds, 40 in total. This article is based only on data in the published FSA Returns.

The UK Life sector hasn’t had a great deal to smile about in recent times, and there were plenty of gloomy predictions that the introduction of RBS reporting would be another severe blow. Happily, those predictions have proved largely unfounded. Coupled with recent announcements of improved profits and respectable new business growth by most of the main players, the picture painted in the latest FSA Returns suggests that the industry may