Unite, the UK's largest trade union already provides a range of financial services to its members and has recently launched a new car insurance comparison service with "Unite Protect Insurance". This is a trading name of Union Income Benefit (UIB), which also provides a range of other insurance services to the union, including AD, travel and Female Cancer covers.
UIB provides the "Unite Protect" branded aggregator via Vast Visibility Limited; a digital specialist with a background in motorcycle insurance and which also offers white label comparison sites for brands including Asda and Bauer Media titles (e.g. Car, Motorcycle News, Heat and Grazia).
The situation is further complicated by Unite's separate provision of car insurance through its longstanding relationship with household insurance specialist, UIA; itself a provider to a range of other large trade unions.
UIA partners with Autonet to provide car insurance to Unite's members, as well as travel insurance with AllClear Insurance Services and pet insurance with Petwise.
The range of separate and competing deals available to Unite's members is not altogether unusual in the trade union sector. This may reflect the need to cover different distribution strategies, but will inevitably impact on the clarity of marketing messages and the need to share margins with a wide range of providers.
