Shepherds Friendly has begun a year-long intermediary campaign to coincide with its bicentenary, with events in Manchester and London planned later this year.
The mutual society, which celebrates its 200th anniversary on Christmas Day, is using the milestone to deepen engagement with advisers and distribution partners as it looks to build on recent intermediary growth.
The campaign will begin with personalised outreach and digital activity across LinkedIn and other intermediary channels, before culminating in two networking drinks receptions – one in its home city of Manchester and the other in London.
The initiative is intended to acknowledge long-standing partners while setting out the society’s ambitions for the years ahead.
In recent years, Shepherds Friendly has expanded its intermediary footprint through distribution agreements with SimplyBiz, Next Intelligence, Mortgage Intelligence, Paradigm and The Money Group.
Last year it also developed a new life insurance product in partnership with Octopus Legacy, and began integrating a low-code technology platform powered by Alula Technologies. The technology project is designed to modernise underwriting processes and broaden its reach.
Jonathan Sandell (pictured), chief executive of Shepherds Friendly, said: “We want to do more than just mark the milestone of our bicentennial; 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.”
INCOME PROTECTION FINDINGS
The society’s 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 conducted in October.
The research, carried out by Walnut, part of Accenture Song, found that 38% of full-time workers aged 18 to 64 said they would be more likely to take out income protection if it was provided by a mutual society.
The proportion was higher among younger respondents, rising to 60% among those aged 18 to 24 and 56% among 25 to 34-year-olds.
