Britannic Assurance, the home service financial services company has announced plans to close its direct salesforce with the loss of 2,000 jobs.

Britannic, which is seen as one of the stalwarts of the home service or industrial branch companies has made the move following in the footsteps of Prudential Assurance, their larger competitor, who announced the closure of their direct sales operations last month with job losses of around 2,000 sales and admin staff.

The move by Britannic was announced as part of a restructuring programme which will see the company move toward selling investment products through ties with other intermediaries such as estate agents. An unofficial source said that the company’s traditional market of low to middle earners no longer provided a viable future for the company’s operation. Britannic’s recent results showed a 7.5% increase in profits.

The shake up of direct sales financial services companies has continued for a number of years as regulation has increased and banks and independent financial advisory firms have made inroads into the market.