14 MAY 1994, Page 29

Closing sale

THERE SHOULD be fireworks this week- end at the annual meeting of the Norwich Union, which (as I was saying last week) is happy to tell others how to run their busi- nesses but has been unlucky with its own. Its ways of selling life assurance earned a rebuke and a fine. I see that the money that the Norwich spends on sales is almost a quarter of what it pays to the policy-hold- ers, who own it. One of them should pro- pose that the Norwich should stop selling policies and close the fund. That would improve its performance no end. They could economise on directors, too.