Standard Life Assurance Co

Well Standard Life is one of the biggest financial companies in Britain, and Europe's largest mutual - meaning there are no shareholders to dictate its path.

Sadly though, all this is about to change. After spending millions not all that long ago defending their mutual status after alleged carper bagger Fred Wollard, and making life difficult for another alleged carpet bagger, David Stonebanks, the current board have decided shedding ...
...best, and with it owning Standard Life Investments, Standard Life Bank and Standard Life Healthcare, it is at the very least an option for all your financial needs even if it is losing it a bit. Do shop around though, as it is not the Master it once was.

Please note I refer to its banks mortgage products for APR.

It is really lacking on its online facilities though, as it will be hard to buy a product on its sites and ... more

Well Standard Life is one of the biggest financial companies in Britain, and Europe's largest mutual - meaning there are no shareholders to dictate its path.

Sadly though, all this is about to change. After spending millions not all that long ago defending their mutual status after alleged carper bagger Fred Wollard, and making life difficult for another alleged carpet bagger, David Stonebanks, the current board have decided shedding there mutual status and becoming a PLC is a good thing, even though the company is worth millions less that when the last two demutual threats took place which tey opposed.

What has happened then, well lots.

Since the last mutual vote, the comapny has lost Scott Bell and Iain Lumsden, the earlier jumping ship and the other being pushed (my opinion).

The stock market has hammered the company, but they too have got to take responsibility. They took the credit when they got great returns, due to their investment strategy, and now they should take criticism when the sae philosophy goes wrong, especially when they change it after the losses making it difficult for yourpension or endowment to get back on track, with, in the case of endowments, a tremendous shortfall. Meanwhile the directors still reward themselves, with in one case, a new Porsche.

The company has let its clients, who are owners, down, and has done to staff too, with redundancies, and I believe cuts to their pension.

I do not accept their usual defence that other companies are doing worse, though to be fair it is true in some cases. It is not a defence though, other companies are doing better too,

They are still good signs though, the customer service has been retained and is probably the best in the industry and there life cover and criticall illness products are probably the most extensive also, with the latter even covering your children up to a percentage of the overall cover. They are not the cheapest, but you do get what you pay for. It is a shame from Joe Public's point of view they are moving away from this business, putting more resource into corporate business, but as it has PLC ambitions it is not a surprise.

So it is the directors and investment choices that have let the company down, and forced it to give up its biggest asset, its mutual status, but its actual products, ignoring the investment side of things, and its customer servie is one of the best, and with it owning Standard Life Investments, Standard Life Bank and Standard Life Healthcare, it is at the very least an option for all your financial needs even if it is losing it a bit. Do shop around though, as it is not the Master it once was.

Please note I refer to its banks mortgage products for APR.

It is really lacking on its online facilities though, as it will be hard to buy a product on its sites and its over compliance can make things difficult, often getting in the way of common sense, so improvements there, please. 

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