Fortis Life reveals market roll out and Q1 growth

Fortis has announced it intends to complete a whole of IFA market roll out for its protection business by the end of this half year.

The provider made the announcement when releasing figures showing its protection business continued to enjoy good progress in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period last year.

New annual premiums in the first three months of the year rose to £5.5m from £2.9m in 2009.

Launched in July 2008, the provider has expanded its availability slowly by making agreements with large IFAs and adviser networks, and says it now covers over 80,000 customers (up from 63,000 in 2009) and currently receives an average of more than 600 applications per day.

Its protection arm continued this expansion with a busy start to 2010, signing distribution agreements with SimplyBiz, Bankhall (now part of the Sesame Bankhall group) and Clarkson Hill, while a company-wide re-name and branding was also announced.

Overall, the provider saw total non-life and life gross written premiums increase by 18.4% to £234.9 million from £198.4 million in 2009.

It also revealed an overall net loss of £1.8m (£4m net profit in 2009) due to severe weather events in January, industry-wide issue of rising claims in private motor market, one-off set-up costs related to the new Tesco Bank partnership and lower realised capital gains.

Barry Smith, chief executive of Fortis UK, is pleased with the company's performance despite difficult market conditions and noted it's life sector's good progress.

"Our business continues to deliver strong growth, particularly in commercial lines, protection and retail activities reflecting the attractiveness of our high service, low cost proposition and our desire to broaden and deepen our product range," he says.