On 29 April 2008, Aviva announced that the Norwich Union brand would be phased out and disappear over a period of two years, on the grounds that a consistent Aviva brand would bring "global impact".[1][2] On 1 June 2009, Norwich Union was rebranded as Aviva.[3]
Norwich Union was founded in 1797 in Norwich, when 36-year-old merchant and banker Thomas Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", a mutual society owned by the policyholders who received a share of the profits.[4] This in turn became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office.
In 1808 Thomas Bignold established a second mutual, the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society.[4] The Fire Society demutualised in 1821 when it absorbed the Norwich General Assurance Company.[4] In common with many insurance companies against fire loss, they operated their own fire brigades to protect (only) the society's policyholders whose buildings were identified by "fire insurance marks". It was not until 1929 that the Fire Society gave up its last private brigade, in Worcester, to the municipal authorities.[5]
In 1997, its bicentenary year, Norwich Union demutualised and floated as a public limited company on the London Stock Exchange.[4] Although it sold general insurance, motoring, healthcare and life policies—its wide range of products leading indirectly to its slogan no-one protects more—it was listed on the markets as a life company, and in later years was under some pressure from analysts to shed its general insurance arm.[6]
In 2000, Norwich Union merged with CGU,[4] which itself was formed from the merger of General Accident and Commercial Union in October 1998. The Norwich Union had tried to take over General Accident over 100 years earlier.[4] CGU also offered a broad range of life and general insurance products, with a stronger global presence than the heavily UK-based Norwich Union. Upon merging they formed the group CGNU which went on to become the Aviva group. In 2005, there were still two companies operating in the UK under the Aviva umbrella that used the Norwich Union brand: Norwich Union Insurance (NUGI) and Norwich Union Life (NUL).[7]
Following an extensive pilot, in October 2006, Norwich Union introduced a novel type of auto insurance called Pay as You Drive (PAYD). A GPS receiver and mobile technology are placed in a car and risk factors (time of day, distance, mileage) are monitored. The information is transmitted back to the insurance company. Drivers using their vehicles at low-risk times of day or on low-risk roads or driving low mileage get a discount on their motor insurance premiums. There are several business method patents covering this invention. The Pay as You Drive service was withdrawn in 2008 due to lower-than-expected volumes of new business.[8]
Norwich Union supported a European public service ad campaign against careless driving at too great a speed. The ad campaign is known as "The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess".[9]
Customer service
In December 2007 Norwich Union was fined £1.26m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after customers with life assurance policies were put at risk of fraud. The FSA said the company had failed to deal with the issue properly even when it had been alerted to the problem.[10]
After discovering an overcharging error that dated back to 2001, Norwich Union agreed to compensate their clients with a cheque for £300 each, due to charges that exceeded the 1% cap imposed by the government. The final amount of compensation is expected to exceed £11 million.[11]
International operations
In Canada, Norwich Union was well known as a direct marketer of life insurance products, often promoted through frequently repeated televisionadvertisements. Most famous was a spot beginning with the phrase, "It's Patrick! He took out life insurance."[12] Following the Norwich/CGU merger, this unit was sold to American International Group and renamed AIG Assurance, which decided to drop the "Patrick" ads. The unit was then resold in 2009 to Bank of Montreal, and is now known as BMO Insurance.[13]
In Australia the operations of Norwich Union Australia were rebranded as Aviva in October 2003.[14] The company then consisted of three businesses: life insurance, fund manager Portfolio Partners (which reports directly to London) and the master trust/financial planning service Navigator.[15]
↑ Insurance Fire Brigades 1680–1929; The Birth of the Fire Service: The Fire Insurance Brigades 1680–1925 [Illustrated] (Paperback) by Brian Wright (Author) ISBN978-0-7524-4509-0
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of an insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness can also trigger payment. The policyholder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as one lump sum. The benefits may include other expenses, such as funeral expenses.
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core businesses: general insurance, life & retirement, and a standalone technology-enabled subsidiary. General Insurance includes Commercial, Personal Insurance, U.S. and International field operations. Life & Retirement includes Group Retirement, Individual Retirement, Life, and Institutional Markets. AIG is the title sponsor of the AIG Women's Open golf tournament. In 2023, for the sixth consecutive year, DiversityInc named AIG among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.
Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general insurer and a leading life and pensions provider. Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada.
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A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. It is a form of consumers' co-operative. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders in the form of dividend distributions or reduced future premiums. In contrast, a stock insurance company is owned by investors who have purchased company stock; any profits generated by a stock insurance company are distributed to the investors without necessarily benefiting the policyholders.
Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) is a multinational insurance company. It is the largest general insurance company in Australia, and also the largest in New Zealand through its subsidiary IAG New Zealand. IAG had its origins in the National Roads and Motorists' Association NRMA. It is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
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Commercial Union plc was a large insurance business based in London. It merged with General Accident in 1998 to form CGU plc.
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CGU plc was a large insurance group, created by the merger of Commercial Union and General Accident in 1998. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. It merged with Norwich Union in 2000 to form CGNU plc, later renamed Aviva plc.
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Thomas Bignold (1761–1835) was an English businessman. He was the founder of Norwich Union, now known as Aviva plc, one of the United Kingdom's largest insurance businesses.
Friends Life Group Limited was a Guernsey-incorporated investment vehicle which had the stated intent of forcing consolidation in the British life insurance industry. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Aviva on 13 April 2015.
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