Pioneer and Exeter Friendly Society are finally dropping the Pioneer brand name following their merger in 2008. They will soon be known simply as the Exeter Family Friendly.

They believe and state:

“We now see ourselves as an integrated healthcare company that provides a range of complementary protection products for the benefit of our customers and their families, enabling them to minimise the impact and cost of ill-health.

Our company is a mutual friendly society and we only work for our customers. Mutual organisations are not owned by external shareholders (like a PLC) but work for, and only answer to, customers like yours.

We believe this is important because:

With no shareholders to pay, mutual insurers like us can ensure that their profits are reinvested to give policyholders better returns, better value and higher levels of service. In contrast, a PLC has to pay shareholder dividends from the profits it makes each year.

We believe that our staff want to try that bit harder because our customers are members of the organisation they work for. We are proud of the fact that we provide protection products that paid 98.1% of all claims received during 2008″

Pioneer was formed in 1888 and whilst being a small organisation, certainly seemed to punch above its weight.

Source: Pioneer Website