releases

Fortis wins ifs 'Most Effective Insurance Initiative or New Product' for YourLife Plan and Real Life Cover

4th December 2009

Fortis celebrates with a three month limited offer of an additional 10% commission offer for advisers

Protection Insurer, Fortis was delighted to pick up the 'most effective insurance initiative or new product' accolade at last night's prestigious ifs Financial Innovation Awards for its YourLife Plan and Real Life Cover propositions. Fortis is celebrating by launching a new initiative to offer an additional 10 per cent commission to its IFA partners on cases that are immediately accepted and completed via its online platform over the next three months.

The insurer entered the protection market in July 2008 making three clear promises:

• To provide innovative systems and processes that empower advisers by placing them in control of their business and making the whole process, from quoting to on-risk, quicker and simpler.
• Two new protection products - YourLife Plan and Real Life Cover - that effectively meet customer needs and help to improve consumer confidence.
• To work in partnership with its advisers to deliver improved efficiency and products that resonated with their customers.

The Chairman of the judges, Rod Duke, said:

[Fortis offers] an exciting and timely product - a customer-driven solution that meets TCF principles.

Commenting on the success, Martin Werth, Managing Director at Fortis Life UK said:

I am delighted that Fortis has once again been recognised for the significant added value we have brought to the protection industry. Our products and processes have been designed to support advisers and their customers. Advisers who have tried Fortis use us again and again. Sales to-date and the awards we received throughout the year show we are making a difference. Our biggest challenge is to get advisers who haven't used us to try us. As a result, we have taken the decision to share our success with our advisers so that they can experience the added value of the Fortis proposition. The additional commission is a limited offer, aligned to our ability to make immediate decisions on Term Assurance, Critical Illness and, Income Protection covers. Thank you for all your support over 2009. We are committed to helping our partners succeed in 2010.

The company recently announced new additions to its distribution network, including Sesame, Positive Solutions and Direct Life and Pensions, bringing its overall coverage of the market to 15,000 advisers. With more distribution deals in the pipe line, the insurer expects to be available to the whole of market in 2010 and is confident that advisers who try its online proposition will see increased efficiency and improved service for customers.

Notes to editors

About Fortis

Fortis (Insurance UK) is a leading provider of award-winning personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK. Fortis UK provides both non-life and life products, distributed through a range of channels including brokers, IFAs, intermediaries, affinity partners and the Internet, as well as through its retail strategy via its wholly or partially-owned companies (RIAS, Fortis Insurance Solutions, Affinity Solutions Ltd, Text2Insure and InsureTECH Systems).

Insuring around 7 million customers and working with a range of partners, Fortis is recognised for delivering consistent and high-quality customer experiences. It employs almost 3,000 people with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Haywards Heath, London, Redditch, and Stoke-on-Trent. In 2008, its non-life profit before tax and interest was GBP 76 million and its non-life GWP was GBP 760 million. Fortis launched a life and protection business in July 2008.

Fortis (Insurance UK) is part of Fortis Insurance International, a global insurance group of significant scale with over EUR14bn turnover, 20 million customers and 10,000 employees worldwide.

Press Contacts:

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