Wesleyan for Lawyers Announces Early Expansion Plans 

Wesleyan Assurance Society has announced the expansion of Wesleyan for Lawyers to other parts of the UK, six months ahead of schedule.

Plans are already underway to set up new sales teams and develop relationships with legal communities in the East Midlands, North, North West and South West of England and Wales.

Wesleyan for Lawyers, a service created to meet the specific financial needs of lawyers and law firms was launched in the West Midlands last July.

Wesleyan’s Chief Executive Craig Errington said: “The success of Wesleyan for Lawyers in the West Midlands has been encouraging with sales ahead of expectation. Before launching the service we did a great deal of research to find out what lawyers want from a financial services company.

This has given us a detailed insight into the market and enabled us to create tailored services and products that legal professionals can really benefit from".

“Research carried out at the end of last year showed that 50 per cent of lawyers surveyed in the West Midlands were aware of Wesleyan for Lawyers as a company that offers specialist financial advice to legal professionals.

Not only that, Wesleyan for Lawyers was the first financial services company that spontaneously came to mind amongst those surveyed. Given that we started 2007 with a zero brand awareness, these are really encouraging results".

“We are confident we can repeat this same success in other parts of the UK and look forward to the challenge.”

Paul Farrow, Chief Executive of Birmingham Law Society, said: “Some of our members have been actively involved in helping Wesleyan for Lawyers evolve some of the products aimed at lawyers. As a result, the products address the very specific needs of the profession and the brand has become very quickly established.”

Wesleyan Assurance Society recently announced plans to grow its sales force by 50% over the next two years.

For more information and interviews please contact:

Bernadette Bogan or Navdeep Bhatti 0121 200 9609
Wesleyan Press Office press@wesleyan.co.uk

Sophie Hull 0207 404 9660
Vanbrugh Communications

Notes to Editors:

Wesleyan Assurance Society, founded in 1841, is a mutual organisation. Its core values are Insight, Performance and Trust.

Wesleyan offers specialist financial advice to hospital doctors, GPs, dentists, teachers and lawyers, through its principal distribution brands Wesleyan Medical Sickness, Wesleyan for Teachers and Wesleyan for Lawyers.

The Wesleyan Group has in excess of £4 billion of funds under management as at 31 December 2007.

Wesleyan’s pensions With Profits fund was ranked the top with profits performer for single premiums invested over five and ten years in the most recent Money Management Individual Pensions survey (March 2008).

In addition the Wesleyan Pensions Managed Fund appeared in the top five performers for single premiums invested over 10 and 15 year periods in the Balanced Managed Fund category.

In 2007 Wesleyan Assurance Society won the ifs Financial Innovation Awards 2007 for Most Effective Customer Segmentation Strategy.

Wesleyan is one of the UK’s financially strongest mutuals, receiving a ten-out-of- ten rating for three consecutive years in the Cazalet Consulting survey of With Profits offices.

Wesleyan came first for realistic free asset ratio (a significant measure of financial strength for With Profit insurers) in the most recent Ernst & Young review of UK Life Insurance Companies.

Wesleyan came second in Money Management’s most recent financial strength survey (August 2007).

Wesleyan is one of only four UK life companies to receive a rating of Excellent for Financial Strength by A.M Best, a global credit rating organisation.