Norwich Union Cuts Payouts

Norwich Union Cuts Payouts

This has not been a good week, PR wise, for Norwich Union; and a very bad week for those who hold endowment policies with Norwich Union. Earlier it was reported that Norwich Union was using part of its inherited estate to pay off compensation claims, now it has announced that it is cutting back on payouts.

Norwich Union has 900,000 endowment policy holders, and has announced that despite 4 years of rising stock markets 90% are still in the red zone.

Last year the red zone was 89%.

Norwich Union has now announced a 2% cut in its payout on a typical policy.

The company has 69,000 mortgage endowments that will mature this year, half are expected to fall short by over £1K.

The rather strange thing about the cut in payouts is that the fund in which the policies are invested grew by 5.4%.

Why the cut then?

Will the senior management of Norwich be taking a cut in their bonuses too?

Will Norwich be cutting their management charges, given that the fund is not producing the payouts that holders were led to believe it would?