3. What affinity groups or communities with common bond in your country could provide the opportunity for a dedicated insurance provider?

Police Mutual Assurance Society Limited (Police Mutual) - 10 marks Police Mutual provides financial services to the Police Family Membership of the Society is open to serving and retired Police Officers and Police staff and their families. In essence, it operates as an affinity group-based organisation and is a compelling example of modem mutuality and how cost effective and efficient such a model can be. In spite of what would appear to be its somewhat limited market potential, Police Mutual has 203,000 customers and manages funds of the order of 0.9 billion. Police Mutual uses a form of governance that is based upon the delegate method and has its President, Vice President, Chairman as well as its eighty strong delegate body drawn from the Police Service. It displays an array of significant competitive advantages that arise from its affinity-based model. Investing heavily in research, Police Mutual has an in-depth understanding of its customers which would be hard to replicate. Of particular note is the strength of real democratic involvement in the policymaking of Police Mutual through its delegate conference, as well as the involvement in overseeing operational decision-making through the role played by the Committee of Management. These structures, and their associated processes, facilitate the development of extremely close bonds and relationships between Police Mutual and those it seeks to serve. Police Mutual continues to grow its portfolio of products and services. The range of savings, investments, pensions, mortgages and insurance services that Police Mutual offers are distributed largely on a direct offer basis; distribution is via a number of channels including direct mail, web and telephone. A whole of market IFA sits within the Police Mutual group providing more specialist services. Police Mutual is also supported by a strong network of volunteers known as Authorised Officers (AOS). There are circa one thousand AOs, all of whom are drawn from within the affinity group. The advocacy and support of this group is a key factor in maintaining the extremely low business acquisition costs of the organisation. Its cost ratio benefits are reduced further by receiving the majority of its premium contributions by payroll deduction A particular feature of friendly societies is their ability to go beyond contract. What this means is that their philosophy and style of mutuality permits them to provide benefits to members and the wider affinity that do not strictly accord with the terms and conditions of any specific policy contract. Police Mutual are very active in this space and are committed to improving the overall welfare of the affinity, financially and otherwise. This forms a key part of their strategy and lies at the heart of the organisation. Police Mutual demonstrate this commitment through the work of their 'Financial Education channel, who present to several thousand officers and staff every year regarding Financial Management best practice and the dangers of high financial risk levels within forces. They have also launched the Police Mutual Foundation which funds a wide range of welfare and benevolent initiatives. The profile of the membership also enables Police Mutual to secure pricing or other advantages. It is also important for Police Mutual to be able to react to the needs of the Police Market and perhaps uniquely Police Mutual considers wider issues within the Police Family and provides help and assistance where they think it will make a positive difference, even if there is not necessarily a direct link to their current products. Money Coaching is one such example, with the economic climate in recent times a driver for concern amongst the affinity Police Mutual used their significant experience to develop a Money Coaching tool with capability to provide detailed analyses of financial behaviour manifested through income and expenditure, trended for both now and in the future. The design facilitated provision of information on an individual by individual basis. This enabled individuals to get a very detailed picture of their finances, providing valuable insight that helped them understand how their behaviour was impacting their financial health and what could be done to improve their financial position. Police Mutual is flexible and innovative, especially in the design of customer led propositions and products to meet specific needs of the affinity. Police Mutual continues to expand its own product offerings as well as those offered by business partners. These relationships have enabled Police Mutual to provide members of the Police Family with access to exclusive, competitive products. An example is a complete whole of market Mortgage Service offering launched in 2012 that was designed to leverage benefits from the unique characteristics of the affinity such as job security in providing access to bespoke mortgage products. Police Mutual shows the capability of the friendly society model to provide low-cost, high value financial services within a highly participative and democratic regime of governance