A UK member-owned mutual dating from 1843, now focused on life insurance, pensions and investments, with its head office in Bournemouth.
LV=, formally Liverpool Victoria, is a UK mutual, which means it is owned by its members instead of outside shareholders. Wikipedia describes its current business as life insurance, pensions and investments, including with-profits, term and whole life cover, annuities, pensions, equity release and financial advice. Its general insurance business, covering things like motor and home, was sold to Allianz between 2017 and 2019. The LV= brand is sold directly, through financial advisers and brokers, and through partners.
The society was founded in 1843, when Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society held its first meeting. Its early aim was to give poorer people the means to pay for a decent funeral, using "penny policies" collected door to door. It grew from Liverpool across Britain, moved its chief office to London in 1884 and to Bournemouth in 1996, and adopted the LV= brand in 2007. In 2020 it turned from a friendly society into a company limited by guarantee, keeping its mutual status. Trade press reported that its board voted in 2022 to stay mutual after earlier talk of a sale.
Wikipedia gives the head office as the Westbourne area of Bournemouth, Dorset. An older trade-directory profile instead lists Brentwood, Essex, and says it had more than 1,700 employees, probably reflecting the earlier general insurance business, so we have not relied on either headcount or the Brentwood address. We did not find a current list of LV= offices. The company has more than five million customers and members, per that older profile, and its 2022 AGM in Bournemouth drew nearly 41,000 member votes.
In 2022, the then chair Simon Moore said LV= would be run with transparency and fairness at its centre, in a "co-operative spirit" focused on members' long-term benefit. David Hynam, who joined as chief executive on 26 September 2022 after roles at Bupa, AXA and Friends Life, said LV= would compete where it is strong. The older profile lists values of openness, honesty, integrity and fairness, and a community scheme called Green Heart Support, which the company launched in 2017. These are the company's own statements, and the sources are partly dated.
A life, pensions and financial advice business employs financial advisers, customer service staff, underwriters, actuaries, claims teams, investment and operations specialists, compliance and risk staff, and marketing and technology teams. Mutual organisations like LV= place a lot of weight on trust and long-term relationships with members, so patient communication and clear explanations count. Because Bournemouth is its home, many roles may be on the south coast, away from the capital.
Website: www.lv.com
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