Aviva has launched a Group Life Master Trust aimed at offering protection solutions to SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).
Registered Master Trust and an Excepted Master Trust available
The Master Trust provides a more affordable and simplified process to allow businesses to offer their employees life insurance which takes less resource to set up and manage.
The Master Trust offering will allow Aviva Group Protection to write multiple Group Life business under a single trust. It creates simplicity and ease of access to protection products for SME businesses as it removes time and cost from the smaller employers by providing a ready made solution. A company essentially agrees to join the Master Trust and their employees are then covered by the scheme.
Steve Bridger, MD for Group Protection at Aviva, said:
“I’m delighted to be launching a Master Trust solution as it means more businesses will be able to offer their employees vital protection. Cost and resources can be a real barrier for smaller companies who want to offer their staff workplace benefits. Using a Master Trust can reduce the cost and the time spent setting up a benefit and managing it in the future.
“Through auto-enrolment, hundreds of thousands of companies are in the middle of setting up their workplace pension schemes. This may be spurring business owners to take a look at what other benefits they can offer their employees at the same time.”
Aviva’s Master Trust will be available on both Registered and Excepted Group Life policies. This means it can be used to offer life insurance to employees of all levels, including those employees not covered under a standard Registered Group Life arrangement.
The Master Trust solution is also available through the Group Protection Online system for any Group Life policies that cover between three and 100 lives. Aviva Group Protection Online is provided and underwritten by Friends Life Limited, part of the Aviva Group.
“When creating this solution it was really important that we built something that employers could use with all their staff – from CEO to intern,” said Steve Bridger. “Aviva is the first to cover an Excepted Group Life policy under the Master Trust solution and I think many will see real value in our offering.”
The Master Trust is designed for multiple employers, but delivered under a single trust arrangement and governed by the external independent trustee company, Pitmans Trustees Limited (PTL), who have extensive experience in this sector.
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If you are a journalist and would like further information, please contact:
Ben Moss in the Aviva Press Office
Landline: 0117 928 5843
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Email: ben.moss@aviva.com
Notes to editors:
• Aviva provides life insurance, general insurance, health insurance and asset management to 34* million customers, across 16 markets worldwide
• In the UK we are the leading insurer serving one in every four households and have strong businesses in selected markets in Europe, Asia and Canada. Our shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and we are a member of the FTSE100 index.
• Aviva’s asset management business, Aviva Investors, provides asset management services to both Aviva and external clients, and currently manages over £245 billion in assets.
• Aviva helps people save for the future and manage the risks of everyday life; we paid out £24.6 billion in benefits and claims in 2014.
• By serving our customers well, we are building a business which is strong and sustainable, which our people are proud to work for, and which makes a positive contribution to society.
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* Before the deduction of overlapping customers.
Pitmans Trustees Limited - Notes to editors:
• PTL is a top five independent trustee firm with offices in London, Leeds and Reading.
• PTL acts as an independent trustee and provides a range of governance services, predominantly to occupational pension schemes, including trust based defined benefit and defined contribution schemes and contract based pension schemes including group personal pension plans. PTL also provides a range of governance services to other non-pension trusts.
• PTL is a member of the National Association of Pension Funds, the Association of Corporate Trustees and the PMI Independent Trustee Group.
• More information can be found on our website - www.ptluk.com