Aviva UK has signed a new five year agreement with Santander for the distribution of Aviva’s life protection insurance products in the UK from June 2011.

According to Aviva, the agreement covers the sale of its core protection products, including life insurance, critical illness and income protection, which will be sold by Santander through its 1,300 UK branches, online and over the telephone.

The company claims that under dual Aviva/Santander brands, Santander will sell products including: term (decreasing and level) with or without critical illness, income protection via the telephone, online and in branches, and guaranteed acceptance whole of life excluding direct mail/on-line via branches and telephone.

Mark Hodges, chief executive of Aviva UK, said: “As Britain’s leading insurer, our strength lies in the breadth and quality of our product portfolio across both general and life insurance and I’m delighted that Santander’s customers will benefit from this.

“We aim to provide Santander’s customers with a simple, quick and easy way to purchase a range of life protection products according to their specific needs. We know that many UK adults do not have any life insurance cover at all, so making protection choices as simple as possible is really important.”