LV=: Everything you need to know
Founded: 1843
Employees: + 1,700
Headquarters: Brentwood, Essex
Trading under: LV= Broker, Highway and ABC Insurance
Liverpool Victoria (trading as LV= since May 2017) was recently voted ‘Which? Insurance Provider of the Year’ and has been in operation for over 175 years. The organisation is currently one of the UK’s largest insurance companies with over five million customers and members, and it also operates as the UK’s largest ‘friendly society’.
At its inception, LV=, which was founded by William Fenton, was associated with the ‘penny policy’ life insurance policy wherein agents would collect penny premiums to allow people to leave behind enough to cover the cost of their funeral. Since then LV= has grown and developed to offer a broad range of services including financial services, insurance, personal insurance, commercial insurance, home insurance and car insurance.
LV= believe that everybody should have access to affordable, independent and regulated financial advice due to the emotional and financial benefits this advice offers. The organisation works with a wide range of financial advisors and it is through these that the vast majority of its customers buy products and services.
Brokers are at the very heart of LV=’s business and the company’s ambition is to be ‘Best Loved’ i.e. the insurer that brokers trust the most and the relationship that brokers most value. LV= develops this ambition with an experienced and ambitious management team.
Important news from LV=
Allianz UK to become sole owner of LV= General Insurance – following the announcement in 2017 that Allianz UK bought 49% of LV=General Insurance from LV=, it was announced that Allianz would purchase the mutual’s remaining shareholding to become the sole owner of LV=GI – a deal completed at the end of 2019.
“We have successfully grown the value of our general insurance business to in excess of £1 billion, and this deal enables us to realise that value for the long-term benefit of our members as well as strengthening our overall capital position,” said then LV= group chief executive Richard Rowney. Rowney stepped down as LV’s chief executive at the end of 2019 after 13 years with the provider.
In March 2019, LV= started plans to convert to a mutual company limited by guarantee due to restrictions faced by its ‘friendly society’ status. This change would result in the company being governed by the Companies Act but would not change its mutual status.
According to LV=, “Much of our success can be attributed to our mutual status. We do things differently from other financial services companies, and in many ways better… The values of a mutual, of shared ownership and community over and above pure profit are just as relevant now as they have ever been.”
Key products from LV=
CSR at LV=
LV=’s Green Heart Support initiative is the organisation’s way of providing help and support to those going through challenging times. Since the initiative launched in June 2017, it has helped thousands of customers and members. Green Heart Support works through empowering employees to reach out and offer assistance to people they talk to who are in need.
People are at the heart of all LV=’s CSR initiatives and the company is careful to consider the impact of all its strategic decisions upon its employees, local communities and environment. LV= has structured its approach to CSR around four key areas.
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