Insurance Times content director Saxon East assesses what implications the departure of Andy Briggs will have on Aviva
Like former Aviva finance chief Pat Regan before him, ambition has driven Andy Briggs out of Aviva.
Briggs was touted as the natural heir to slip into Mark Wilson’s old shoes, so missing out to Maurice Tulloch would have been a hammer blow.
Briggs will surely look across the ocean at Regan, now leading Australian insurance giant QBE, to know a man of his experience can land a plum job elsewhere.
For Aviva, he will be sorely missed, more than Regan.
Former Aviva finance chief Pat Regan missed out on the top job - but he eventually landed safely as chief executive of QBE
The reason is that new chief executive Tulloch will need to improve the UK life and pensions business, and a seasoned pair of hands in Briggs is invaluable.
UK life and pensions issues
The new platform business is doing okay, but excluding this, net flows in the remainder of Aviva’s UK life and pensions business have been negative in each year since 2013.
By itself, this wouldn’t be such a problem.
However, Aviva is compared to high-flying rivals such as Legal and General, or Prudential.
Some market watchers believe Tulloch could show the market he means business by hiving off the legacy business, and letting a specialist in back book management buy it out.
And if Tulloch believes there isn’t an issue, at the very least, a strong and respected voice in Briggs would have been helpful in arguing the case.
However, Tulloch would have been expecting this departure, and his first priority has always been to flesh out a clear strategy.
With the Briggs announcement now out the way, the strategy details will be the next big development for Aviva, when Tulloch can light up the Road to Damascus for any doubters.
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