250 jobs lost as TSB fund is closed
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Your support makes all the difference.HILL SAMUEL Financial Services, a life insurance company owned by TSB Group, is to make 250 people redundant after closing its fund to new business. Allied Dunbar, the BAT-owned insurer, will take on the company's 630 salespeople and 85 sales managers to expand its own sales force.
Ron Gibson, who worked in telemarketing at HSFS's Croydon head office, said he was called at home and told over the telephone of the redundancies. 'I think it's pretty disgusting,' he said.
HSFS said that no one had been told of their redundancy over the phone. Staff who were off work had only been read the announcement of the closure to new business.
The 250 staff who will leave HSFS are mostly involved in marketing and support roles. The company will still have 400 staff to service the existing 150,000 customers and the pounds 2bn of savings they have invested with HSFS.
The closure of HSFS means that TSB has gone from owning four life insurance companies to having only one still seeking new business, TSB Life and Pensions. The others - Target, National Financial and Hill Samuel Life - were the legacy of a botched pounds 1bn acquisition spree in 1987. TSB seems to have received little money for the parts of this business that it has sold.
Allied Dunbar is paying a small but undisclosed sum up-front. Further payments will follow depending on the performance of the salespeople who join Allied Dunbar's sales force, which numbers 4,300.
Sandy Leitch, Allied Dunbar's chief executive, said the deal would give the insurer a significant increase in distribution capability.
Bryan Portman, HSFS chief executive, is staying on. David Sachon, director of sales and marketing, will transfer to Hill Samuel Investment Management, where he will run the group's unit trust and personal equity plan business.
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