Fortis has announced the launch of House Guard Prestige, its new home insurance product for the mid-net-worth market. House Guard Prestige will be sold through the intermediary channel, specifically targeting the 1.3 million homeowners1 (12.5 per cent of the market) who require a higher level of household cover than that offered by standard products.
The new product has a maximum claims limit of £150,000 for contents (compared to £80,000 for its standard product, House Guard Extra) and £1 million for buildings (compared to £500,000) and will automatically offer £5,000 of worldwide cover for personal belongings, money, credit cards and pedal cycles. All elements of Fortis' 5-star Defaqto rated 2 House Guard Extra product have been included, with many limits increased as part of this specialist proposition.
Additional product highlights include: House Guard Prestige's hole-in-one golf cover which guarantees cover for customers celebratory post-game clubhouse bar bill (up to £500) in the event of hitting a hole-in-one. And for the art lover, House Guard Prestige offers 20 per cent of the maximum claim for contents.
Further benefits of House Guard Prestige insurance cover:
Contents
- Student belongings cover
- Parents or Grandparents contents in a nursing or residential care home cover
- Hole in one golf cover
- The cost of retrieving personal or business data stored on a computer
- Cover for the loss of non-recoverable downloaded data
- Contents in storage cover
- Fine art cover
- ID theft
Buildings
- Accidental loss of metered water or oil
- Garden cover
- Alternative accommodation for up to 30 days if a local authority evacuates a neighbourhood
Adam Clarke, Underwriting Director at Fortis comments: "We have a good two-way dialogue with our brokers and have developed or enhanced a number of products by listening to what they tell us they need; House Guard Prestige is a prime example of this approach. Brokers told us that House Guard Extra is highly rated but they also wanted a product with higher limits to sell to their mid-net-worth customers. With House Guard Prestige we believe we have delivered a high quality product, supported by a claims service that is recognised as one of the best in the industry.
"Part of our strategy is to look for ways to support our brokers by broadening our product offering sold through the broker channel. The mid-net-worth market is worth 1.3 billion so there is huge potential in this market and it's Fortis' aim to sell £3 million worth of policies in the first year."
Concluding, Clarke says: "Personally, I'm looking forward to congratulating the customers who make a claim as a result of hitting a hole in one on the golf course!"
-Ends-
Notes to editors:
1 Datamonitor UK Household Insurance Report 2008
2 Defaqto Limited 2005
A soft copy of the House Guard Prestige product spec is available on request.
In the UK Fortis (Insurance) is a leading provider of award-winning personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK and was named 2007 General Insurer of the Year at the British Insurance Awards. The insurer's successful customer-centric strategy has been founded on aligning its activities to how customers want to buy insurance, combined with delivering high quality products, manufactured at costs better than market norms.
Fortis's unique multi-distribution capability enables it to deliver products face-to-face, by phone (inbound and outbound), over the Internet and via SMS technology. Aligning its business activities with its partners' general insurance strategies enables Fortis to offer end-to-end white label capabilities in product development, marketing, campaign management, sales, fulfilment and claims - providing a seamless integration with partner brands.
Insuring in excess of 6.7 million customers and working with a range of partners, Fortis is recognised for delivering consistent and high-quality customer experiences. It employs 2,901 people as of 31/12/07 with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Haywards Heath, Redditch, and Stoke-on-Trent. In 2007, its profit before tax and interest (excluding impact of weather related events) was £92.2 million and its GWP was 757.8 million.
Fortis Bank UK provides specialist finance solutions to large corporate, institutional and mid-sized companies such as: trade finance, treasury services, diverse asset finance, global cash and liquidity management, acquisition and mezzanine finance, syndications and structured finance.
The bank offers expert services in commodity trade and shipping finance, renewable energy finance derivatives and derivatives clearing and securities lending. Fortis Bank Global Clearing NV is an important independent clearer of futures, options and related equities on most major Exchanges.
Fortis Bank SA/NV is authorised by the Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission in Belgium and the Financial Services Authority, regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of UK investment business. The Fortis Bank UK head office is based in the City of London and the bank's expanding UK network includes offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Colchester, Crawley, Leeds, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton.
Fortis is an international financial services provider engaged in banking and insurance. We offer our personal, business and institutional customers a comprehensive package of products and services through our own channels, in collaboration with intermediaries and through other distribution partners.
With a market capitalisation of EUR 32.8 billion (31/01/2008), Fortis ranks among the 15 largest financial institutions in Europe. Our sound solvency position, our presence in more than 50 countries and our dedicated, professional workforce of 60,000 enable us to combine global strength with local flexibility and provide our clients with optimum support. More information is available on www.fortis.com
JBA Public Relations
Louise Gough or Tricia Defty
Tel: 020 8875 5460
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