cite any sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message royal london group type mutual society industry financial services founded 1861 headquarters london united kingdom key people rupert pennant rea chairman phil loney chief executive products life assurance investment management pensions website http www.royallondon.com the royal london mutual insurance society limited along with its subsidiaries is the largest mutual insurer in the united kingdom with group funds under management of 87.9 billion . group businesses provide around 9.1 million policies and employ 3 051 people . 1 figures quoted as at 31 march 2016 contents 1 group 2 offices 3 history 4 sponsorship 5 acquisitions 6 see also 7 references group edit royal london is the largest mutual life pensions and investment company in the uk while also providing protection products in ireland . offices edit royal london is registered in england with its head office in the city of london . it has other large offices in wilmslow and edinburgh with smaller offices in bath glasgow and dublin . history edit founded in 1861 by joseph degge and joseph ridge in a london coffee shop royal london was initially set up as a friendly society dedicated to serving the interest of its members and securing their financial security . royal london became a mutual life assurance society in 1908 . other elements of the modern business are older than the primary brand for example royal liver assurance was founded in 1850 while the irish business until recently branded as caledonian life dates back to 1824 and represents the caledonian insurance company originally founded in edinburgh in 1805 . royal london asset management rlam a wholly owned subsidiary of the group was founded in 1988 . rlam employs 75 investment professionals based in the company s london office . sponsorship edit in 2013 royal london signed a four year deal to sponsor one day cricket in england & wales including domestic and international fixtures . acquisitions edit on 31 december 2000 royal london took over united assurance group plc. the transaction was the largest acquisition of a quoted uk company by a mutual . united assurance group itself had been formed by the merger of united friendly and refuge assurance in october 1996 . on 2 october 2000 it was announced that royal london would acquire scottish life the edinburgh based pension specialist . transfer took place on 1 july 2001 . in march 2003 royal london launched a new start up protection business bright grey based in edinburgh . in may 2008 royal london concluded a transaction to acquire the open businesses of resolution . these were the protection businesses scottish provident and scottish mutual ; phoenix life assurance limited formerly abbey national life and scottish provident international . at the beginning of 2009 the offshore businesses scottish provident international and scottish life international were combined to form a new entity royal london 360 based in the isle of man . this business was subject to a management buyout in november 2013 . in 2010 royal london announced that it was in talks with royal liver assurance over a possible acquisition . terms were agreed in 2011 and the delegates of royal liver voted for the takeover at their agm on 12 may 2011 and the transfer was completed on 1 july . in 2013 the co operative group agreed to sell its life & pensions and asset management businesses to royal london . the proposed transaction gained the approval of royal london members at an egm in june 2013 and gained regulatory approval on 31 july 2013 . in 2015 caledonian life the group s irish business rebranded to become royal london ireland . at the end of 2015 royal london completed the rebrand of its two uk protection businesses bright grey and scottish provident to a new royal london protection brand . this completed the group s journey to become a single royal london brand . the group s independent wrap platform has remained branded ascentric . see also edit nfu mutual references edit new business results for the twelve months ending 31 december 2015 pdf . www.royallondon.com . royal london . 10 february 2016 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title royal london group & oldid 721706671 categories insurance companies of the united kingdommutual insurance companieslife insurance companiescompanies established in 18611861 establishments in englandhidden categories use dmy dates from september 2015use british english from september 2015articles lacking sources from may 2015all articles lacking sources navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 23 may 2016 at 15 46 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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