Norwich Union, soon to be Aviva, launched its Financial Adviser Academy just over a year ago. Since then, the academy has been a huge success, welcoming over 3,350 members and delivering face-to-face and virtual classroom training to 900 members during revision for the October 2008 and April 2009 exams.
Norwich Union, soon to be Aviva, launched its Financial Adviser Academy just over a year ago. Since then, the academy has been a huge success, welcoming over 3,350 members and delivering face-to-face and virtual classroom training to 900 members during revision for the October 2008 and April 2009 exams. It has supported almost 500 members who sat their diploma exam in October 2008, as well as the 600 who plan to sit exams this month.
Feedback from members was overwhelmingly positive with 99% saying that they would probably use the Financial Adviser Academy again. 86% of members said they found the study materials useful and 77% visited the website on a weekly basis and the remainder visiting once a month*.
Steve Gay, director of distribution development at Norwich Union, said: "The Financial Adviser Academy has been a huge success since it was launched just over a year ago and we are delighted with the number of people who have joined us. This response demonstrates the appetite amongst advisers to work towards achieving a recognised higher-level qualification that will ultimately help raise their professional standing."
The Academy offers a blended package of learning support to help give practising financial advisers the best possible chance of attaining the CII Diploma in Financial Planning.
Norwich Union developed the initiative in partnership with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and in line with both organisations' proposals to promote the financial advice profession. Membership of a recognised professional body is a pre-requisite of joining The Norwich Union Financial Adviser Academy.
Advisers can visit The Norwich Union Financial Adviser Academy at www.nu-academy.co.uk/.
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Press office contact:
Louise Soulsby
Telephone: 01904 452617
Notes to editors:
* Member survey 10-17 October 2008 (173 respondents); revision workshop feedback 9 September - 14 October 2008 (315 respondents)
Norwich Union is one of the UK's biggest life insurers. It is a leading provider of life, pensions and investment products and one of the largest financial adviser (FA) providers. FAs provide over 70% of the company's long-term savings business in the UK.
Norwich Union has strategic alliances with building societies and other leading UK brand names including CIS and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Norwich Union's news releases and a selection of images are available from Aviva's internet press centre at www.aviva.com/media
In the summer of 2009 Norwich Union will change its name to Aviva. Aviva is the world's fifth largest insurance group and operates in 28 countries. Aviva is to become the customer brand worldwide, thus enabling the company to compete even more effectively on a global scale for the benefit of customers, staff, business partners and shareholders.