Friendly Societies

What is a Friendly Society?

A Friendly Society (often known as mutual society or benevolent society) is one of the oldest forms of oganisations providing financial services. Friendly societies were established hundreds of years ago, before the introduction of the welfare state, to encourage self-help and personal responsibility and to enable people with limited financial resources to improve their economic status.

Friendly Societies often have names which reflect their origins, and can fall into a number of categories, for example:

1. A place name or description (e.g Nottingham, Liverpool, Wiltshire, etc...)
2. A product type (eg Family Assurance, Healthcare, Deposit, etc...)
3. or An occupation (eg Police, Teachers, Dentists, Foresters etc...)

Friendly Societies offer members a wide range of savings, investments, insurances, pensions and specialist annuities.

Because Friendly Societies have no shareholders, societies pass on all the benefits of good investment performance to their customers.  Many societies continue to offer a range of non-contractual benefits to members, such as investment in the local community, in addition to financial support to the young, the sick, the less advantaged and the elderly.

Due to its mutual status, many societies regularly charge less than non-mutual insurers and charges on endowments are 26% cheaper.  And only friendly societies in the insurance sector have been able to provide CTF with low regulated charges (Source:www.fsa.gov.uk/tables). 

  (Source:www.fsa.gov.uk/tables).

Friendly Societies - Contact Details	Unbiased reviews written by parents to help you make better choices. Please read or submit your review here
The Childrens Mutual Brockbourne House 77 Mount Ephraim Tunbridge Wells Kent TN4 8GN Tel : 0845 077 1899	Hi, we opened an account with the children's mutual after seeing an artical in the Daily Mail. The report was stating that this has the best performance over the 18 years the account would be active....... Full Reviews
Shepherds Friendly Society Limited Shepherds House--Stockport Road Cheadle Cheshire SK8 2AA Tel  Tel : 0800 526249/ 0161 4281212	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Engage Mutual Assurance - childtrustfund.com Hornbeam Park Avenue Harrogate HG2 8XE Tel: 0800 169 4321	As we all know there are an awful lot of child trust funds available, and so its difficult to choose one. However as i shop at ASDA regularly, i felt that i would be more comfortable with them. The staff are always friendly and they also gave me a GEORGE voucher, i found this really useful and because they gave a voucher earlier too when we collected our BOUNTY pack...... Full Reviews
National Deposit Friendly Society Limited 4 Worcester Road Clifton Bristol BS8 3JL Tel: 0117 9739003	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Limited County Gates Bournemouth BH1 2NF Tel: 0800 085 8811	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited 16 Blythswood Square Glasgow Scotland G2 4HJ Tel: 0141 2755000	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Family Investments 16-17 West Street Brighton East Sussex BN1 2RL Tel: 0870 2410843	Having been with Barclays for may years I was pleased that they offered a Child Trust Fund Account that met all of my requirements. It was easy to join up, i did it over the phone and they then sent me a pack containing a special envelope to send off the voucher. We could not afford to make extra payments at the time of opening the account ..... Full Reviews
Wiltshire Friendly Society Limited 7 Market Street Trowbridge Wiltshire Tel: 01225 752120	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Nottingham Friendly Society 29 Bridgford Road West Bridgford Nottingham NG2 6AU Tel: 0800 7310827	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Compass Friendly Society Limited Old Bank House High Street Odiham Hampshire RG29 1LF Tel: 01256 701750	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift
Foresters Friendly Society Foresters House 29/33 Shirley Road Southampton SO15 3EW Tel: 023 80229655	Add your review here and we'll send you a free Mr Men Gift

For further information, please contact the Association of Friendly Societies (AFS). The AFS represents the friendly society movement, and has over 50 members. Between them, these organisations manage the savings and investments of over 4.5 million people, and have total funds under management of around £15 billion.

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