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Fortis announces partnership with SimplyBiz

25th January 2010

Fortis Life UK has kicked off 2010 with the launch of a new partnership with SimplyBiz.
The deal gives all SimplyBiz members access to Fortis' innovative protection products and application systems and extends Fortis' overall coverage in the market to over 18,000 advisers.

SimplyBiz Marketing Director Matthew Timmins said:

We are very pleased that our Member Firms have access to this exciting proposition. It is refreshing for Financial Advisers to be able to sell protection without the need for wet signatures and knowing that there will be no automatic GP report. Furthermore, Fortis' systems provide a high level of immediate decisions which is a very attractive feature in the current economic climate.

Martin Werth, Managing Director of Fortis Life UK added:

We are delighted to be starting the year by launching with SimplyBiz. Together we are committed to providing an exceptional professional service to SimplyBiz members and their customers. I very much look forward to a mutually successful and rewarding partnership.

Our proposition is simple and compelling, which is to empower our distribution partners to give their customers a better service and the protection that they would expect. We are delighted that this fresh thinking has been changing distributor behaviours and we have already become the first choice insurer for a number of distributors. We will continue to support our distribution partners and look forward to working together to growing the protection market in 2010.

With this in mind I want all advisers to challenge us to demonstrate the real value we add!

The launch with SimplyBiz follows a steady stream of announcements made in the last quarter of 2009, where Fortis also launched with Direct Life and Pensions, Positive Solutions and Sesame. This continues to support Fortis' strategy of expanding its IFA network in a controlled way to ensure market-leading standards of service are maintained to advisers.

Notes to editors

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.

Press Contacts:

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