Share tip of the week: good-value life assurer

This top-notch life assurer is well placed to benefit from the long-term need for pension provision, says Paul Hill.

Everyone needs a nest-egg for old age. Traditionally this has come from company pension schemes. But as these have closed over the past decade more of us are being forced to provide our own pensions. That means converting a life-time's savings into income by buying an annuity from a life assurer.

Historically an assurer matched this type of pension obligation easily enough by investing in long-term, income-producing assets, such as gilts and equities. But not anymore. Plunging markets have hit asset values, forcing big UK life assurers such as Legal & General to cut dividends just to maintain their minimum regulatory capital.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.