Growth in funds and sales boost for Scottish Friendly

• ​​​​​​Funds under management up £27 million to £924 million
• Life & pension sales up by 35% over 2012 and 106% to April 2013
• Major new strategic alliances
• E-commerce strategy progresses

Scottish Friendly, the Glasgow-based financial services group and Scotland’s largest mutual life office, today (Wednesday 24 April 2013) announced an increase in its funds under management of £27million to £924 million over the 12 months to 31 December 2012.

The increase in funds under management comes on top of a 35% increase in core life and pension sales for 2012 from £6.3 million in 2011 to £8.5 million in 2012, based on the industry standard of regular premiums plus one tenth of single premiums. The group’s success shows no signs of losing momentum in 2013 with sales to 1 April 2013 up 106% on the same period in 2012.

The strong increase in sales reflects the continued robust progress Scottish Friendly has made in its partnership distribution and e-commerce channels.

Scottish Friendly secured two major new partnerships in 2012: Beagle Street (BGL), part of the group behind ‘comparethemarket.com’ and Neilson Financial Services, under its Smart Insurance brand. Both offer a range of innovative life assurance and critical illness products and Scottish Friendly worked closely with them, in different ways, to bring new products and approaches to market.

These alliances have enabled Scottish Friendly to further develop its key objective of diversifying its product range and distribution routes and the impact is reflected in the new business results for 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

Additionally the group has announced that its e-business sales for March 2013 were in excess of £630,000, a Scottish Friendly record monthly amount for sales from this channel, reflecting Scottish Friendly’s ongoing drive to attract e-business sales from a new market.

Scottish Friendly made significant strides forward in its e-business distribution strategy in 2012, with the launch of its ‘My ISA’ platform in December 2012. ‘My ISA’ offers a flexible and accessible approach to ISA investment, designed to appeal to a broad market and enables investors to incorporate several life policies within their stocks and shares ISA allowance.

Chairman Michael Walker said: 

2012 has been another year of robust performance, product development and significant progress for Scottish Friendly as it advanced its partnership distribution channel and its e-commerce business.

Fiona McBain, Chief Executive, said: 

Scottish Friendly’s 2012 results and our excellent start to 2013 demonstrate that innovative organisations such as ours can continue to build a competitive edge despite an extended period of exceptionally difficult economic circumstances.