It said the cuts will form part of its plan to save £225m in annual cost synergies by the end of 2017.
The merger, finalised in December last year, will create the UK’s largest insurance, savings and asset management firm, employing around 31,500.
Aviva said it has already undergone “preliminary analysis” to identify potential areas of overlap and recapture previously outsourced asset management contracts.
It has predicted that It could save up to £1.8bn by “reducing corporate and development costs” across the two businesses.
An Aviva spokesperson said: “We appreciate that this news may be disconcerting for some of our employees and we would look to ensure that any redundancies are kept to a minimum wherever possible, by using vacancies and natural turnover, for example.
“At this stage, no specific teams, roles or locations have been identified as the proposed transaction has not completed. When we are clearer on this, following completion of the deal, we will fully engage and consult with employees and their representative bodies.”
Aviva and Friends Life have 16,000 and 3,500 UK staff respectively.
Following the merger, holders of Friends Life shares are expected to receive 0.74 new Aviva shares for each stock they own. This is expected to result in Friends Life shareholders owning approximately 26% of Aviva.
Aviva expects to add up to £70bn of Friends Life’s UK assets under administration (AuM) to increase its own AuM by up to 29%, reaching £309bn.
It is anticipated that Andy Briggs, the current group chief executive of Friends Life, will become chief executive officer at Aviva UK Life and will join the board of Aviva as an executive director.
It is also expected that Malcolm Williamson, the current chairman of Friends Life, will join the board of Aviva as senior independent director.
Commenting at the time, Briggs said: “Together [the two companies] will have to scale leadership positions across out chosen growth markets, ensuring that the new group is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving UK life insurance market.”
