UK mutual Shepherds Friendly has launched an adviser-focused initiative to mark its 200th anniversary later this year.
Though its official birthday is not until Christmas Day, Shepherds has scheduled a year-long programme of events “to strengthen its relationships with advisers and partners”.
Beginning with personalised outreach and digital activity across LinkedIn and key intermediary channels, the campaign will culminate in two networking drinks receptions later this year – one in its home city of Manchester and the other in London.
Shepherds says the engagement initiative aims to acknowledge those partners that have been part of its history so far, to build on its recent momentum and outline its vision for the future.
The society has entered into a number of new intermediary partnerships in recent years, including distribution agreements with SimplyBiz, Next Intelligence, Mortgage Intelligence, Paradigm and the Money Group.
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Last year, it developed a new life insurance product with Octopus Legacy, and began work integrating a low-code technology platform powered by Alula Technologies. The latter was aimed at future-proofing its underwriting and enabling it to reach a wider audience, it says.
“We want to do more than just mark the milestone of our bicentennial,” said CEO Jonathan Sandell (pictured). “We also plan to celebrate our shared successes and underline Shepherds Friendly’s long-term commitment to the intermediary community.
“We are eager to use the anniversary as an opportunity to look ahead. Though we’re one of the oldest mutual societies in the UK, we’re a future-facing organisation and our goals are very much aligned with the way society is shifting. The government is actively promoting the growth of our sector and as our recent report on income protection revealed, the concept of mutuality is rapidly gaining traction among younger audiences.”
The report, Reaching the unprotected: The opportunity of the Income Protection gap, was published in November following a nationally representative survey of 2,000 UK adults in October.
The research, carried out by Walnut, part of Accenture Song, found that when asked if they would be more likely to take out income protection if it was provided by a mutual society, 38% of full-time workers aged 18-64 said yes. But this figure was significantly higher among younger consumers, at 60% among 18-24-year-olds and 56% among 25-34-year-olds.
