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"What's in it for us?"

Why form or join a Mutual

The trigger for forming mutuals is often when a particular group finds itself out of sync with the insurance market and the required cover is either not available or priced too highly.

Market insurance premiums become unrelated to loss experience and a group combining together provides important stability - achieving more together than as individuals - and providing cover that is based on what the group, not the market, feel is appropriate.

Benefits

With a mutual the balance of risk and reward is far more equitable - contributions are directly related to actual claims experience, and the cost structure is as close to the cost price as possible.

Control rests with the members and, by focusing on a single sector, the mutual has far greater industry appreciation and knowledge - leading to superior, more service and claims handling.

Many mutuals, especially those operating through an industry association, help develop industry best practice.

Typical Protection

✓Property Damage

✓Business Interruption

✓Public Liability

✓Employers’ Liability

✓Professional Indemnity

✓Directors’ and Officers’

✓Health Care / Personal Accident

✓Motor

✓Product Liability

✓Contingent Liability

✓Goods in Transit

✓Engineering & Construction

✓Financial Guarantees

✓Special Conditions of Trade

✓Personnel Lines and VIP

✓Jewellery and Works of Art

✓Livestock

Mutuals work for their customers rather than shareholders

Mutual organisations are not owned by external shareholders (like a PLC) but work for, and only answer to their customers and can be a better choice for many people.

Experience & scale - Mutuals typically have over 100 years of experience and heritage in financial services (and some have been around a lot longer). They manage over £77bn in assets and have more than 19 million customers.

Trust - Research shows that on average mutual customers are more likely to recommend a mutual organisation than a PLC.

Greater potential value - Research by the Association of Mutual Insurers (AMI) shows that in 2007 PLC insurers paid out on average 3.1p to shareholders for every £1 invested by their customers. With no shareholders to pay mutual insurers can ensure that their profits are only distributed to customers, or reinvested to give better returns, better value and higher levels of service.

Better service - with higher levels of customer satisfaction (according to independent surveys). Staff working for mutuals seem to want to try that bit harder when their customers are also the owners of the organisation they work for.
Understanding mutuality A History of Mutuals Association of Mutual Insurers FAQs