Norwich Union is to make a raft of changes to its life insurance legal team after its budget was cut by 20%.

The cost-cutting measures, which are part of wider initiative led by parent company Aviva, will see the company separate its legal department from its investment helpline team, reducing the legal headcount from 72 to 43.

As part of the overhaul, the company is set to merge its legal bases in Norwich and York Around nine staff, including five lawyers, are expected to be affected, with some likely to take early retirement. The legal team staff in Southampton is expected to be unaffected by the move.

Norwich Union's life insurance division is also poised to establish a new five-strong company secretarial function in addition to a 10-lawyer transitional team to help the with the handover of the company's insurance policy processing to reinsurer Swiss Re. The post-handover fate of the transitional team has yet to be decided.

The changes will be overseen by director of legal services Jenny Wilman, with the process set to be completed by the first half of next year.

News of the changes come as fellow Aviva company Aviva Investors kicked off a review of its UK property funding advisers.

The company started the process in October and expects to finalise its roster by mid-November. The review will be closely followed by existing advisers such as Nabarro, SJ Berwin and DLA Piper.

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