There was a time when Phoenix Group, and companies like it, complained bitterly about being referred to as the operators of “zombie” funds. It was a minor insult, they said, to refer in this irreverent way to their specialist areas of managing books of closed life and pension funds that were no longer open to new customers.
Phoenix, at least, need fret no longer because, as of last year and a deal with Standard Life Aberdeen, plenty of the funds it manages are not only not zombies but are very much alive.
Phoenix was created through a series of mergers, including of Pearl Life and Scottish Mutual Assurance, all involving combinations of books of closed policies. In the case of life insurance — to put