Minister E.T. (Bob) Richards, will retire from her position as chief financial officer of Aon Group (Bermuda) Ltd. January 1.

A previous report in The Royal Gazette quoted unnamed "insiders'' as stating Mrs. Richards was considering running as a UBP candidate in Warwick East, the same constituency as her husband.

"My retirement from Aon has nothing to do with politics,'' Mrs. Richards said yesterday. "I will be pursuing other business opportunites. I will be assisting at GulfStream (Financial) Ltd. I just thought it was time to do something more exciting. Announcements on the political front will be made shortly.'' Senator Richards owns brokerage firm GulfStream though his company Bermuda Asset Management Ltd.

Mrs. Richards will hand over her responsibilities at Aon next month and reduce her working hours for the rest of the year. She will also become chair of the trustees for the new Bermuda pension plan being created, and will act as a consultant.

Mrs. Richards is one of a number of Aon executives who have left the insurance brokerage and management firm since the merger with Alexander & Alexander.

Robin Spenser-Arscott opted to take early retirement from his position as chief executive officer of Aon Risk Services (Bermuda) Ltd.

Aon Corp. bought Alexander & Alexander for about $1.23 billion in January last year. Later it also bought the London-based Minet Group. Subsidiaries around the world have since been in the process of consolidating operations.

Aon Intermediaries (Bermuda) Ltd. president and chief executive officer Joe Rego said Mrs. Richards' resignation was not related to the merger of the companies.

"It is a personal decision,'' he said yesterday. "In general there have not been any significant redundancies as a result of the merger. In some areas we have actually expanded. We thought at the time there would be some redundancies. But in some cases there have been complementary areas.'' Mrs. Richards' responsibilities will be shared among other employees. Michael Reynolds, currently group financial controller for Aon Group, will take on the additional duty of the financial management and reporting for other Aon subsidiaries in Bermuda.

Jennifer Woods, who works in the discontinued operations division, will also be responsible for office administration and human resource management for all Aon companies on the Island.