LifeSearch partners with Gocompare.com for advised protection

LifeSearch has signed an agreement with Gocompare.com, one of the "big 4" aggregators, to provide free protection advice to its users. Gocompare will continue to work with theidol.com for non-advised protection sales and PMI Partners for over 50s life cover. 

Gocompare.com customers buying policies through LifeSearch will also be able to access free advice on trusts and claims. 

LifeSearch and its CEO Tom Baigirie have championed the cause of advice-based protection for many years and this approach is also the basis of its other major partnerships, including comparethemarket.com (which also works with theidol.com) and Asda. 

Equity extends British Legion partnership

Equity Insurance Partnerships (EIP) has announced an extension of its relationship with the Royal British Legion. It will provide home and motor insurance under the "Poppy Insure" brand to the charity's 370,000 members and supporters. 

The partnership was announced in July 2012 and is due to run for 3 years. EIP has worked with the British Legion for 10 years, although it has offered home and motor, only since 2009. Prior to then, the Royal British Legion partnered with Allianz. 

The Royal British Legion works with a wide range of affinity providers, including MBNA (credit card), Coventry Building Society (savings accounts) and VetsmediCover (pet insurance). 

Ageas extends partnership with John Lewis

Ageas has announced that its partnership with John Lewis has been extended to include travel insurance. For the last 4 years, Ageas has offered car insurance to John Lewis customers. 

The change was highlighted in an earlier posting (25 May 2012) and represents a further loss for AXA Insurance, which held a range of partnerships with John Lewis until only a few months ago. At the time of writing, AXA remains listed as the household insurer for John Lewis customers, but RSA has previously announced that this business will move shortly.   

The announcement has been made in the same week that Ageas has acquired Groupama Insurance Company for £116 million. Unlike Ageas, Groupama is not regarded as a serious player in the affinity sector. 

Lighthouse signs 2 new affinity partnerships

Lighthouse Financial Advice has signed 2 new affinity partnerships in the space of a month, with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU). The membership of the RCN is 400,000 and BFAWU brings an additional 23,000 members. 

Lighthouse has been active for some time as a provider of financial  advice for affinity groups and also works with UNISON, Unite, GMB and the CSMA.  

It took over a number of LV='s affinity partners in 2007, when LV= outsourced its IFA provision to Lighthouse and it provides another example of the strength of IFAs in this space.  

Aria Assistance partners with Pannone

Aria Assistance, formerly Europ Assistance, has announced a partnership with legal firm Pannone for the provision of a range of services including legal expense work, a legal helpline, public liability defence and claims recoveries. 

Pannone won a 5-way tender to secure the partnership, which is being provided by its white-label arm, Pannone Affinity Solutions. 

It's also interesting to see that Pannone has adopted the name "Affinity Solutions" for its white-label business. As a former director of the affinity consultancy, Affinity Solutions, I can only assume that they checked with Ageas (who bought it in 2005) that the name was available for them to use?