It’s a refreshing surprise when the chief executive of a well-known company offers to make you a cup of tea. This immediately makes me feel at ease as I conduct my first MM Meets. The tea-maker in question is Standard Life CEO Andy Curran.
The room where Curran and I talk — at parent company Phoenix Group’s head office in Farringdon — is called ‘London’; each meeting room is named after one of the UK capital’s famous bridges.
For a second, I assume Standard Life and the Money Marketing offices share a similar trait, the meeting rooms at our base being named after capital cities, such as London and Tokyo.
Exciting possibilities
Curran informs me he is two and a half years in to his Standard Life journey and, even though it has been a “really good start”, there is still “much more to come”. He’s “very excited” about the possibilities ahead, he enthuses.
He positions Standard Life as a “fantastic and iconic brand” in the industry and looks forward to the opportunity “to breathe new life into the company and build a thriving business”.
A large swathe of the market, maybe 80%, is getting no advice or guidance
Standard Life has two main markets: bulk purchase annuities (BPA) and corporate pensions.
Curran talks of the firm’s “significant success” in both these areas and highlights how its market share last year made Standard Life the second-largest player in the BPA market.
But he also envisages moving into “other new markets”.
The company is now returning its attention to where Curran’s background lies: independent financial advisers (IFAs).
Curran graduated from the University of Stirling with a degree in business studies. He moved from his hometown of Glasgow to Reading, where he took a job at Prudential in 1989.
During his graduate rotation with the insurance company, Curran covered all the main business functions, including finance and operations, as well as sales and marketing.
Subsequently, he moved into the Prudential Holborn division, “which was effectively its IFA business, seen as a fledgling business at the time”, he says.
Advisers do a cracking job and will continue to do a cracking job, regardless of what the FCA implements
Curran then spent a decade in the IFA space.
He points out that, 20 to 30 years ago, Standard Life had a “fantastic relationship” with advisers. He wants to get it back to that level.
“I know it will be hard work, but I am prepared to put in the effort.”
Curran notes Standard Life has been “under-resourced” in this area, but is now investing in it because, he says, “we have been distant from IFAs for too long”.
The company has already started to roll out fresh positions with an adviser focus. In June it appointed Warren Bright to the newly created role of head of retail for intermediary distribution.
Bright, who has 25 years of life and pensions experience, will be responsible for developing relationships with the financial adviser community. He joined Standard Life from LV=, where he had been responsible for managing key strategic adviser relationships and sales in the intermediary market.
You have got to have fun. I like people to enjoy what they do
Additionally, in August, Callum Stewart was appointed as head of investment proposition distribution. He will develop relationships with clients and advisers across the workplace pensions sector.
Curran says Standard Life regards retail advisers as a key market and he is “keen to bring solutions and offerings to advisers that they value and pass on to their clients”.
Consumer Duty
Curran speaks very highly of advisers during our conversation, and also discusses the recently implemented Consumer Duty.
“The general thrust of the Consumer Duty can only be a good thing as companies must make sure ‘It does what it says on the tin’ and work to the benefit of the consumer,” he says.
“There are two blocks to think about: those who are already getting advice who have probably been very well served by their adviser; and then there is a large swathe of the market, maybe 80%, who are getting no advice or guidance, which sits uncomfortably with me.”
We have a responsibility to help individuals make better decisions; and, where possible, to develop new product solutions
He views the Consumer Duty with an adviser focus as he adds: “It is to make sure those not being served at all by advisers have enough information and guidance to make better decisions.”
From a company standpoint, the rollout of the duty does not intimidate Curran because “we are very confident we will hit all the required deadlines”.
The Consumer Duty relates to financial services in the UK only, but Standard Life works with advisers in Austria, Germany and Ireland too. However, Curran explains, despite the different rules in different jurisdictions, each country has similar challenges to those of the UK, such as an ageing population with people living longer in retirement, and less support from the state.
If Standard Life can find a solution for any of these challenges in the UK, he says, it will try to assess if that solution is portable to another country.
Standard Life is an important employer in Edinburgh as it brings highly skilled jobs to the local economy
The 55-year-old, who has been married for 30 years and has four children, believes both Standard Life and advisers “have a huge societal role to play” — the former from an employee’s perspective and IFAs for the wider community.
As Curran sees it, “Advisers do a cracking job and will continue to do a cracking job,” regardless of what measures the Financial Conduct Authority decides to implement.
Backed by a FTSE 100 company
In 2018, Phoenix Group acquired Standard Life from Standard Life Aberdeen for £2.9bn. In May 2021, Phoenix Group acquired the Standard Life brand. Then, in July 2021, Aberdeen Standard Life Group firms rebranded as Abrdn.
“To be fair, it was confusing,” admits Curran when detailing the acquisition process. When Phoenix Group bought Standard Life, it did not buy the actual brand; but, “after we had bought Standard Life Insurance, we bought the brand quickly”.
You get in the very best people and you create an environment for them to do their best work
He reveals Phoenix Group had wanted to make it clear it owned Standard Life and intended to invest heavily into it, “which it has done subsequently”.
I ask if having a FTSE 100 company such as Phoenix Group behind Standard Life brings a lot of strengths and advantages, and increases its reach.
“Yes, of course,” he says.
Phoenix Group is the UK’s largest saving and retirement business. As a result, he observes: “We have scale, so we can leverage a cost advantage; we have an enormous and very strong balance sheet; and we have a long-term view of investment into the market.”
Curran says the scale, expertise, brand and reach brought by Phoenix Group are “a great set of assets” for Standard Life. His role involves using his capabilities “to give us the chance to convert our assets into something that makes a difference”.
‘Advantages of being old’
Very soon after taking the Standard Life role, Curran sought to hire high-quality people to run the brand’s various businesses.
Phoenix Group is the parent company of Standard Life’s pension and saving business, Standard Life International, based in Dublin and Frankfurt, and of the SunLife business, a financial services company founded in 1810.
Despite already having “excellent leadership” in certain positions, Curran’s approach to Standard Life was to identify where gaps were in the organisation and bring in high-quality individuals to run those businesses and plug the gaps.
“To some extent that is the advantage of being old,” he jokes.
“With 30 years’ experience, I know what works and what doesn’t. I understand the markets, and the operators of those markets, well.
I’m keen to bring solutions and offerings to advisers that they value and pass on to their clients
“You get in the very best people and you create an environment for them to do their best work. The temptation is always to meddle but the best thing is to let people get on with it.
“So, we improved and strengthened the quality of my executive team and in turn they built out where they had their own gaps. Now we have an incredibly talented collection of individuals and we are very excited about the future.”
Curran is very au fait with team-based work because his go-to sports when younger were rugby and football. He broke his jaw and collar bone playing rugby and any dreams he had of playing at a higher level were impeded by the fact his bones “kept getting broken”.
He is a fan of his local football team, Celtic, based in Glasgow. I ask if he is a fan of Glasgow itself, to which Curran replies simply: “It is my home city.”
Standard Life employs more than 7,000 people, with over 2,000 staff working in Scotland’s capital, which makes it an “important employer in Edinburgh as it brings highly skilled jobs to the local economy”, he says.
The Consumer Duty will make sure those not being served at all by advisers have enough information and guidance
As Curran thinks back to when he joined the financial services industry 34 years ago, he says: “A lot of people were in defined benefit pension schemes, and life expectancy was 76.
“The world has moved on significantly since then as people journey to and through retirement, with the market being far bigger than it was back in the late 80s.”
Of Standard Life’s 13 million policyholders, Curran says: “We have a responsibility to help those individuals make better decisions; and, where possible, to develop new product solutions that will help them through retirement.”
Pervading ethos
Curran’s ethos for both life and business is based around three important rules.
The first is delivery, “so you have to achieve what you set out to do”. The second is standards of operation, “which are really important to me — you have to do it well”. Finally: “You have got to have fun. I like people to enjoy what they do. Sometimes I even think I’m quite funny.”
I’m looking forward to the opportunity to breathe new life into the company and build a thriving business
He adds: “This is how I think about life.”
Throughout our interview the theme that keeps arising is what the future may bring.
Curran says: “As the consumer need is unquestionably there for a company like us, we should be making every effort to help.”
CV: ANDY CURRAN
October 2020: CEO, Standard Life.
2017: Managing director, corporate, Aviva UK Insurance.
2014: CEO, UK, Friends Life Group, which was acquired by Aviva in 2015.
2013: Pensions and investments managing director, UK & Ireland Life, Aviva.
Also chair of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) Long Term Savings Committee, and ABI board member.
Family: Married to Sarah, with three sons and a daughter.
Hobbies: Enjoys football and rugby. Keen reader/researcher of history, philosophy, politics, economics and religion.
Favourite film: Schindler’s List.
Favourite meal: My mother is Italian, so it has to be spaghetti (although I am a fan of any Italian food).
This article featured in the September 2023 edition of MM.
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‘We have been distant from IFAs for too long’ = We thought we were good enough to go it alone and ignore IFAs. Big, big mistake.
Life companies in the main have got the big decisions so wrong over the last 20+ years. Nothing left now but protection policies.