Standard Life Assurance Company

Why Standard Life is one of the world's most important life assurers.

The Standard Life Assurance Company is now Standard Life, a major asset management group with 7 million customers and 1.5 million shareholders. In June 2008 it was managing £130.6 billion in assets - although that figure's unaudited, so it may be out by a few pounds.

The Standard Life Assurance Company was a mutual society without shareholders for more than 80 years. In July 2006, however, The Standard Life Assurance Company demutualised and became Standard Life PLC, a Public Limited Company.

Moving from a mutal society to a public limited company certainly doesn't seem to have done the Standard Life Assurance Company any harm. It is one of the top 50 firms in the FTSE 100, has more than 4 million life and pensions customers in the UK alone, and its private medical insurance company Standard Life Healthcare is one of the largest in the UK.

A few more statistics show just how the Standard Life Assurance Company has changed since it was established in 1825 . From its Edinburgh headquarters it has over 10,000 employees based throughout the world; the Standard Life Bank has over £10.6 billion in mortgages under its management; and Standard Life Investments manages assets of £130.6 billion. However, even in its earliest days the Standard Life Assurance Company was ambitious: it opened a Canadian branch in 1833, and an Irish branch in 1838.