releases

Fortis announces partnership with Sesame

30th November 2009

Fortis Life UK has continued its phased distribution roll-out with the launch of a new partnership with Sesame. The deal gives all Sesame appointed representatives and directly authorised firms access to Fortis' innovative protection products and application systems and extends Fortis' overall coverage in the market to over 15,000 advisers.

Building on Fortis' significant growth in its first year of trading in the protection market, the new distribution deal provides further evidence of Fortis' strategy of expanding its IFA network in a controlled way to ensure market-leading standards of service are maintained to advisers. With other major distribution deals in the pipeline, the Life insurer expects to be available to the whole of the IFA market in 2010.

Sesame Managing Director Nick Kelly said:

"Greater competition and innovation in the protection market is always good news for advisers and their clients, which is why we welcome the addition of Fortis onto our panel of leading product providers, delivering excellent cover at competitive rates. We have been impressed by the way in which Fortis has embraced technology as part of their proposition, which enables the majority of clients to receive instant decisions through their intuitive online system."

Martin Werth, Managing Director of Fortis Life added:

"We are delighted to be working in partnership with Sesame further expanding the availability of Fortis' protection products to the market. Like us, Sesame is committed to delivering excellent levels of service to advisers and customers and to staying ahead of the pack through innovation."

"We came to market with two promises − to make life easier for advisers by providing faster simpler systems that put them in control; and to give customers the cover they expect at a price they can afford. These are more than just words, advisers who've tried us, use us again and again, allowing us to become one of their key protection partners. We deliver on our promises and this has only been possible by maintaining a tight control of our distribution roll-out in order to provide them with the level of service they deserve and expect. It's fantastic for us to already have grown to the scale to support networks of the size and diversity of Sesame.
We also constantly listen to feedback from our distribution partners in order to make sure that we are responding to their and their customers changing needs. All protection is not the same. We'd encourage all of Sesame's members to try us today and find out why."

Notes to editors

Press Contacts:

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

Fortis: Fortis (Insurance UK) is a leading provider of personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK. Fortis UK has two main divisions, manufacturing both non-life and life products, which are distributed through a range of channels including brokers, IFAs, intermediaries, affinity partners and the Internet, as well as various wholly or partially-owned companies (RIAS, Fortis Insurance Solutions, Affinity Solutions Ltd, Text2Insure and InsureTECH Systems).

Fortis insures in excess of 6.9 million customers working with a range of partners. It employs almost 3,000 people with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Reigate, Haywards Heath, London, Redditch, and Stoke-on-Trent.

Fortis Holding (Fortis SA/NV and Fortis N.V.) consists of (1) a 75% ownership of Fortis Insurance Belgium (2) Fortis Insurance International, (3) a 45% stake in Royal Park Investments - a structured credit portfolio entity - and (4) financial assets and liabilities of various financing vehicles. Fortis Insurance Belgium is overall market leader and a leading player in the Employee Benefits market. The international insurance activities (Fortis Insurance International) are located in the UK, where Fortis is the third largest player in the market for private car insurance, France, Hong Kong, Luxembourg (Non-Life), Germany, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and joint ventures in Luxembourg (Life), Portugal, with Millenniumbcp Fortis being a clear market leader, China, Malaysia, India and Thailand. Fortis currently employs over 10,000 people.