In 1806 London Life was set up to cater for the insurance needs of Britain's middle classes. Many years later its logo of Richard 'Dick' Whittington and his cat was a fitting choice; the well known cloth dealer made a fortune and became four times Lord Mayor of London in the 15th century.
When James Renat Syms, Common Cryer and Sergeant-at-Arms of the City of London, proposed the establishment of London Life, his idea fell on fertile ground. Life was difficult at the start of the 19th century; poverty and disease were widespread and the Napoleonic wars created economic uncertainty, so the notion of providing for the future was most appealing.
Although life insurance schemes had been introduced in 1706, the method of calculating benefits was very speculative. When London Life was founded more reliable ways were developed to calculate premiums and benefits.
Many other life offices were formed in the late 19th century, and amidst the stiff competition London Life grew in fits and starts. By 1918 it was strong enough to take over the Clergy Mutual Assurance and the Metropolitan Life Assurance in 1928.
London Life prided itself on its genteel approach to life insurance. London Life employed no agents and offered no commission to those professionals who introduced potential clients.
In the 1920s London Life's offices moved to King William Street - just a few doors from the Society's London offices at the time. Their offices remained there until 1981 when the Company relocated its Head Office to Bristol.
April 1989 saw London Life, the second oldest mutual in the world, accept AMP's merger proposal. Despite significant investment in the early 1990's, the decision was taken to close London Life to new business in May 1995. The next 2 and a half years were spent successfully reducing costs. With one of the lowest cost bases in the UK, a focused range of products were re-opened and sold via the post and over the phone, again adopting London Life's low pressure, non-commission approach. This continued until the middle of 2003. London Life is now only open to increases to existing contracts from existing clients.
As you may know, AMP (the previous owner) has demerged its UK companies into a new group headed by HHG plc. London Life, NPI and Pearl are now part of the Life Services division of this new independently managed UK business.
The above article was taken from the London Life Website 1/6/2004
To contact London Life - Telephone - 0800 000 000
