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Fortis launches UK Life Insurance

7th July 2008

Fortis today launches its new life business in the UK with the roll out of a proposition that empowers advisers and addresses the real needs of customers.

Fortis, which already has strong credentials in the UK general insurance market, providing cover to over 6.7 million customers, is moving into the life protection market with the ambition and confidence that comes from being one of the largest financial groups in Europe.

Having conducted an extensive review of the UK market, Fortis has identified an opportunity to introduce two new protection products that more effectively meet customer needs and improve consumer confidence. It will pilot the products through a small group of protection-focused IFAs, followed by a controlled roll-out to the wider protection market.

• YourLife Plan is a highly flexible menu protection plan that provides a choice of Term Assurance, Family Income Benefit, Critical Illness and Income Protection. The covers can be tailored to individual customers' needs and be put on risk independently through one application process. The Plan breaks new ground in a number of areas to improve customer understanding and confidence.
• Real Life Cover is a unique protection plan that has been designed with protection specialists, LifeSearch. It combines seven essential protection covers, including Life and Income Protection, with the option of unemployment cover. This is aimed at customers who know they need more than just term assurance but find it difficult to choose between the different types of cover available or see them as too expensive or too complicated. Real Life Cover is easy to understand and affordable, providing essential protection throughout the customer's working life.

Fortis Life's innovative systems and processes have been designed to empower advisers by placing them in control of their business and making the whole process, from quoting to on-risk, quicker and simpler. The new systems tailor questions around the customers' specific circumstances, remove the need for signatures, provide real-time updates and avoid General Practitioners' Reports wherever possible.

Complementing Fortis' general insurance capabilities, the Fortis Life team has significant industry experience, bringing a depth of knowledge across the market, from the needs of distributors and their customers, through to e-business processes and risk management.

In announcing Fortis Life's entry to the market, Martin Werth, Managing Director, said:

"We are delighted to launch a fresh and innovative life proposition designed from a clean sheet of paper, following extensive research with customers and advisers. Our new range of products addresses customers' real needs and supports advisers who recognise that term assurance alone does not provide adequate protection. Our new approach provides advisers with the tools to run their businesses with increased efficiency, which in the current market climate is more important than ever. Our customers and partners can be confident in the strength and experience of Fortis, one of Europe's top twenty European financial institutions."

Commenting on the launch, Barry Smith, CEO of Fortis UK said:

"The launch of Fortis Life is another significant step forward for Fortis in the UK, complementing our successful and award-winning range of general insurance propositions. As part of Fortis' overall strategy for growth, we identified the opportunity to organically enter the UK Life market, leveraging the capabilities within the non-life businesses to create a competitive advantage. The launch builds on our commitment to support our partners and to enhance customer choice. Together, this makes Fortis the natural choice for insurance solutions."

For further information, please contact:

Ian Jefferies
Fortis Life UK
+44 (0)20 3296 9489

Simon Moyse
Amanda Lee
Peter Russell
Finsbury Group
+44 (0)20 7251 3801

Notes to Editors:

• Fortis was named General Insurer of the Year at the 2007 British Insurance Awards.
• As part of the market entry, Fortis Life conducted extensive research. (Adviser research by NMG Financial Services Consulting, Q1 2007; consumer research by Research First Ltd, March/April 2007). The research cited: applications that are too complex and inflexible; overlaps between adviser and provider processes; online systems that can only handle the simple cases and are supported by manual back office processes.
• Fortis Life's initial strategic partners at launch are Best Deal, Click, LifeSearch, Personal Touch Financial Services and Torquil Clark.
• Real Life Cover is a packaged product aimed at those customers who know they need more than just Term Assurance but see traditional products as too expensive or too complicated and only want one plan. Real Life Cover helps fill the £2.3 trillion life and £190 billion per annum income protection gaps (Source: Swiss Re Term & Health Watch 2008).
• Real Life Cover developed from an idea conceived by Tom Baigrie, LifeSearch Managing Director in 2004 and was taken up by Fortis 18 months ago. The distributor and the provider have been developing the product together since that time.
• In 2004 Tom Baigrie and Kevin Carr at LifeSearch started devising a new product as an alternative to Income Protection. In 2006, Tom commenced a series of conceptual presentations to providers to develop a market for this new product. Late in 2006 when Martin Werth joined Fortis to develop an innovative range of consumer focused products, he agreed to progress the product, named Real Life Cover, with LifeSearch as part of their attempt to reinvigorate the market.
• LifeSearch receive a small royalty payment in recognition of the design work done and intellectual property in Real Life Cover.

In the UK Fortis (Insurance) is a leading provider of award-winning personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK and was named 2007 General Insurer of the Year at the British Insurance Awards. The insurer's successful customer-centric strategy has been founded on aligning its activities to how customers want to buy insurance, combined with delivering high quality products, manufactured at costs better than market norms.

Fortis's unique multi-distribution capability enables it to deliver products face-to-face, by phone (inbound and outbound), over the Internet and via SMS technology. Aligning its business activities with its partners' general insurance strategies enables Fortis to offer end-to-end white label capabilities in product development, marketing, campaign management, sales, fulfilment and claims - providing a seamless integration with partner brands.

Insuring in excess of 6.7 million customers and working with a range of partners, Fortis is recognised for delivering consistent and high-quality customer experiences. It employs 2,901 people as of 31/12/07 with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Haywards Heath, London, Redditch, and Stoke-on-Trent. In 2007, its profit before tax and interest (excluding impact of weather related events) was £92.2 million and its GWP was 757.8 million.

Fortis is an international provider of banking and insurance services to personal, business and institutional customers. We deliver a total package of financial products and services through our own high-performance channels and via intermediaries and other partners. Fortis ranks among Europe's top 20 financial institutions. Together with ABN AMRO, we have a presence in over 50 countries and a dedicated, professional workforce of more than 85,000. All this makes us a leader in financial services in Europe, a top 3 private banker and a top tier asset manager.

More information is available at www.fortis.com

Press Contacts:

Fortis Press Office, Tel: 023 8035 2754, E: press.uk@fortis-uk.com