Clamp joined Friends Provident in February 2002 as director of IFA Operations and was appointed director of UK Distribution in 2004.  He was promoted to managing director, UK in 2005.

Trevor Matthews, chief executive officer of Friends Provident, said: “The speed at which Simon’s health deteriorated has come as a complete shock to us all. He was a terrific colleague, valued member of my management team as well as a personal friend of mine and we will miss him greatly.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Sheila and son Freddie at this sad time.”

Clamp’s contribution to Friends Provident was said to be “very significant”.  He was responsible for leading its UK business, where his remit included managing Friends' UK individual business, UK Corporate business and its UK Distribution and Strategy teams.  He was also a director of Sesame Bankhall Group and Pantheon Financial.

Ivan Martin, executive chairman of Sesame Bankhall Group, said: “There are very few people in our industry who didn’t know Simon. I was privileged to know him for many years. He represented all that is valued in our business, honesty and integrity personified. Simon will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him and he will be remembered with deep fondness and affection.”

Clamp began his career at Scottish Life in 1982, where he spent seven years before joining Aegon (Scottish Equitable). There he created the National Account Team and became part of the senior management team in 1996. As sales development director he had responsibility for national accounts, e-commerce and product champions.