Our heritage
Friendly societies have been around for hundreds of years and their origins can be traced back to Roman times.
Friendly societies
Initially, friendly societies were formed to meet the financial needs of working class people, by providing schemes for funeral expenses. As such, friendly societies are mainly associated with Industrial Branch Whole of Life Insurance policies or 'penny policies', as they were more commonly known. With these 'penny policies', you could insure your or your child’s life for one penny a week, and the society would pay towards the policyholder's funeral. Often such organisations and societies, which funded Whole of Life Insurance, were also known as collecting societies, as they used to send agents to personally collect policy premiums by going door-to-door every week.
Nowadays, many people believe these 'penny policies' hold no value, but if you have unclaimed policies we'll still honour the sum assured, plus bonuses added to the policy, as long as the premium payments are up to date. If they aren't, you may get a reduced amount.
Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society
Our own origins come from Liverpool, in the exact same poverty ridden streets that Charles Dickens used as the inspiration for his novels. He was a volunteer policeman at the time that a group of dock managers first sat round a table and created the Liverpool Victoria Legal Friendly Society. Liverpool Victoria quickly grew into one of the larger friendly societies. Over the years, Liverpool Victoria acquired several other burial societies and mutuals, all of which are listed below.
Life companies taken over by Liverpool Victoria and year of acquisition
- Ardwick Union Burial Society (1957)
- City Mutual (Guernsey) Collecting Society (1935)
- City Mutual (Jersey) Collecting Society (1935)
- Druids Burial Society (1965)
- General Federation of Trade Unions Friendly & Collecting Society (GFTU) (1952)
- General Friendly Collecting Society (1908)
- Hibernian Mutual Assurance Collecting Society (1944)
- Independent Burial Society (1953)
- Keighley Samaritan Brief (1963)
- Liverpool Protective Assurance & Burial Society (1903)
- Most Friendly Burial Collecting Society (1933)
- New Era (1904)
- Tomorrow (2007)
- Royal National Pension Fund for Nurses (RNPFN, 2001)
- UIA Life Businesses (2005)
- Withington Friendly Burial Collecting Society (1954)
Association of Financial Mutuals (AFM)
The Association of Financial Mutuals is the trade body that represents Friendly Societies and other financial Mutuals in the UK. Today, the majority of friendly societies and mutuals no longer exist and the AFM only has around 60 members still active. You can try to track down what’s happened to an old policy by contacting the AFM, which holds a list of member and closed societies.
Association of British Insurers (ABI)
The ABI is a trade association made up of UK insurance companies and represents the collective interests of the UK's insurance industry. If you have an old penny policy and you know the insurance company with which the policy was held, you should contact the insurer directly. You can find a complete list of ABI members, including contact details, on the ABI website.
Next steps
If you, a member of your family, or a client, were a member of a mutual insurer or friendly society that you want to trace, you can choose from one of the following options to discover if the policy has any value.
