Monday, 11 August 2008
Reliance Mutual Insurance Society Limited (Reliance Mutual) has completed
its seventh acquisition in five years with the successful completion of a
further block of business from Family Investments following FSA approval.
In 2004, when Reliance Mutual acquired 23,500 policies, representing £260
million funds under management from Family Investments, legislation did not
explicitly permit any tax-exempt friendly society business to retain its
tax exemption when transferred to an insurance company.
As a result a number of policies could not be transferred as part of the
original agreement. That restrictive legislation was amended in the
Finance Act 2007 enabling those polices to now be transferred to Reliance
Mutual.
Mark Goodale, Chief Executive of Reliance Mutual said, “We really have
considerable experience in the medium and small business transfer and acquisitions
market for life assurance and pensions. Having now made seven successful
acquisitions since 2003 with each one being a seamless transition for policyholders,
we have tremendous in-depth strength in our acquisitions team who have all
been with the company for a number of years.
“With all this experience Reliance Mutual is extremely well placed to make
further acquisitions – even complicated acquisitions can be completed within
10 months from start to finish. These can be either small to medium
sized insurance companies and friendly societies, or large insurers looking
to offload a particular closed book of business.”
Reliance Mutual is also focused on providing tailored white label products
and specialist smoker annuity products.
The white label products are aimed particularly at advisers and organisations
looking to ‘brand’ and market their own protection products such as term
assurance, whole life and critical illness without having to carry all the
necessary regulatory and administrative back office burdens.