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Norwich Union, the UK's largest life assurer, is to offer"Nurture" - a stakeholder pension proposition designed to meet theneeds of charities and the not for profit sector. This is availablethrough City based pension advisers Regent.

There are over 1,000 employers in this sector employing morethan 750,000 people. Activities range from caring and fund raisingorganisations to independent schools and housing associations. Thenature of the type of employment in this sector means that a largemajority of employees may previously have been excluded from accessto a pension scheme prior to the launch of stakeholder.

Whilst there is a significant need for pension provision in thissector, employers are increasingly struggling to fund DefinedBenefit schemes and many are no longer actively promoting them.With a 0.8% maximum charge, this new Defined Contributionarrangement through a stakeholder pension could prove the idealanswer for employers struggling to balance employee benefits withaffordability.

Jerry Barnfield, director of pensions development at NorwichUnion, commented, "We are pro-active in the development of thestakeholder market and in supporting the Government's high levelobjectives on pensions provision.

"It is anticipated that many of the organisations within thesector will need to designate a stakeholder pension and that thedesignation process will seem to be a complex procedure especiallyfor smaller organisations. We have created a specially designedscheme to reflect the sector's specific needs and believe that thisaffordable proposition will enable employers to provide pensionprovision for previously non eligible workers within thissector."

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Notes to editors:

1. The value of a pension investment can go down as well as upand is not guaranteed. Full written details are available onrequest.

• CGU plc and Norwich Union plc merged on 30 May 2000 to createCGNU plc, the UK's largest insurance group and one of the top-fiveinsurers in Europe with substantial positions in other marketsaround the world, making it the world's sixth largest insurerbased on gross worldwide premiums.
• CGNU's principal business activities are long-term savings,fund management and general insurance, with worldwide premiumincome and retail investment sales from ongoing business of over£27 billion and assets under management of more than £210billion.
• From October 2000, the combined life and pensions, generalinsurance and retail fund management businesses in the UK operateunder the Norwich Union brand, while the institutional investmentbusiness operates under the Morley Fund Management brand.
• Norwich Union's news releases are available on thiswebsite.

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