SunLife offers a home insurance plan called the SunLife Home Insurance. Dignity Funerals Ltd arranges and provides the funeral services. SunLife offers a funeral plan called the SunLife Guaranteed Funeral Plan. This is arranged and administered by Age Partnership. SunLife offers an equity release plan called The Over 55 Equity Release Service. This is provided by Phoenix Life Limited and currently has over 800,000 policy holders. SunLife offers a whole-of-life insurance plan called the Guaranteed Over 50 Plan. Business activities Over 50s life insurance In 2016, Axa sold its UK investment, pensions and insurance businesses, including SunLife, to UK insurer Phoenix Group in a £375 million deal. In the same year, SunLife announced a range of savings products, including stocks and shares ISAs. Sun Life Direct rebranded to SunLife in 2014. Dean Lamble, formerly of Aviva, was appointed Managing Director. Īxa sold its main life assurance business to Resolution Group in 2010 and continued to sell life insurance products through Sun Life Direct. The business was renamed Axa Sun Life Direct, and then Sun Life Direct in 2009. In May 2000, Axa acquired all shares it did not already own in the company. In 1997 Axa, who had acquired UAP in 1996, transferred its Equity & Law business to Sun Life & Provincial Holdings increasing its holding in the company from 60% to 72%. Shortly after, Sun Life Assurance Society & Provincial Insurance Company merged and established the holding company, Sun Life & Provincial Holdings. In 1992, French insurer UAP became Sun Life Assurance Society's major shareholder. In 1982, they became the world's first life assurance company to announce a £200,000 non-medical limit. They introduced their very first plan for people aged over 50 in 1979. Within a year, Sun Life began sending out direct mail. The head office moved to Bristol in 1976–1977. įrom the 1970s SunLife split their headquarters between London and Bristol. When Sun Alliance made a successful bid for London Assurance, it resulted in a conflict of interest with Sun Life, so it was agreed that they would go their separate ways. The break was a result of the formation of the Sun Alliance and London Group. In 1965, the 155 years of close association between Sun Life and the Sun Fire Office came to an end. In 1938, it was made into a Southern Divisional Centre in preparation for the war. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Sun Life Assurance Society owned East Hall, a house in the outskirts of Orpington. In 1921, the non-medical scheme was finalised, meaning approved people aged 50 or over could get immediate whole of life cover without the need for a medical examination. Towards the end of that year, they became the first company in the industry to offer life assurance without a medical examination. Sun Life Assurance Society's first monthly premium plan was introduced in 1900. Sun Life Assurance Society bought over twenty life insurance societies during the late 19th and early 20th century and incorporated them, their branch offices and employees into the business. Harris Saunders was the Actuary and General Manager. In 1891, the company set up the Sun Life Assurance Company of India, with offices at 7 Council House Street, Calcutta, and a local Board of Directors. ġ884 became a landmark year as Sun Life Assurance Society issued more than 1000 policies for the first time. The first Sun Fire Office salesman, Edward Trescott Liddell, was hired in 1865. Amongst the life assurance candidates was Charles Dickens in 1838, whose application was declined by the Society on the grounds that he “works too much”. Dr Henry Herbert Southey had previously been a Physician-in-Ordinary to the Monarch in 1823, and later Physician-Extraordinary for Queen Adelaide. In 1835, the Society appointed its first Medical Officer to assist in the selection of lives for Assurance. At an 1815 board meeting it was decided that, for the future, burial as well as death certificates would be required to substantiate claims. The society's first office opened opposite the Bank of England in London, and actuary Joshua Milne was appointed the first member of staff.ĭuring its first 12 months, Sun Life Assurance Society wrote 132 policies for a total sum assured of £163,150. SunLife can trace its history back to the establishment of the Sun Life Assurance Society on 28 March 1810, when the Sun Fire Office Board launched a separate company to offer life assurance.