Aviva Life Insurance is a division of Aviva Plc. The company is a British insurance group that is the fifth largest insurance company in the world. It is the largest insurance group in the UK. The company began more than 300 years ago. It currently does business in more than 28 countries. The company employs over 54,000 employees and has over 53 million customers worldwide.
The UK General Insurance Group has about 14% of the UK market for personal and small business insurance. Its UK Life group is one of the major providers of life insurance, pensions and investments in the UK market. Its North American Group consists of two different areas. The Aviva USA group provides Life insurance and annuity products to over 1 million customers. Aviva Canada provides personal and commercial insurance to over 3 million customers. Aviva Life Insurance Company operates in 15 countries across Europe and in Asia Pacific.
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The company has operated under the name Aviva since July 2002. It was formed by a merger of CGU and Norwich Union in 2000. The company can trace its origins back over 300 years. In July 2006 the company greatly increased its business in the US with the acquisition of AmerUS Group.
Aviva operates in the UK, US, Canada, Poland, Spain, Netherlands, Romania, France, Ireland, Australia, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Lithuania and Italy. Aviva is the largest insurance company in the UK which is their major market. They are located in the UK.
A recent Research and Markets report put out points to the fact that the recent economic crisis has made it much more likely that more of the smaller insurance companies will likely bought out by the larger companies. Since Aviva Plc is the largest insurance company in the UK, it should benefit from this trend.
Aviva’s recent Standard & Poor’s financial strength rating was AA-, which is very strong. The outlook is negative. The financial strength rating from Moody’s is Aa3 which is excellent. They have a negative outlook. AM Best gives the company an A rating which is excellent with a stable outlook.
Types of Life Insurance Policies Available through Aviva Life Insurance Company:
This type of a policy has a limited life. The contract you select will determine how long the coverage will last. It may be 10, 20 or more years. Premiums must be paid every year to keep the coverage in force. There is no cash value with a term insurance policy, so if the premium is not paid, the coverage will lapse.
This type of policy is good for people who have a need for insurance but can’t afford whole life insurance. Many people carry extra term insurance while their children are still young and then let it go when they are grown. Term insurance is fairly cheap if you are young. The premiums can get rather expensive as you age increases.
This type of policy is a form of permanent insurance. It can be purchased as a single premium life insurance plan or a traditional yearly or monthly payment method. The single premium policy is typically purchased by an older person who is planning to pass along assets to heirs. The premium is paid and the death benefit is in place for life.
Loans can be taken from Universal Life Policies. They will reduce the death benefit though. Flexible premium Universal Life policies are usually purchased by younger people who have a longer period of time to pay premiums. You will select the death benefit you wish to have and the premium is set for that amount. You can change the death benefit as you go along. You can decrease it and depending on your health, you can also increase the death benefit. Your new coverage will be obviously based on a higher age as well.
This type of policy is another form of permanent life insurance. It is similar to the regular type of universal life insurance except the interest is credited a bit differently. Rather than a set interest being credited to the account each month the interest is tied to movement of a stock market index, like the Standard & Poor’s 500 or some other index.
If the market goes up, the interest credited to your account will be higher. If the market goes down or does nothing, the interest rate that is credited is a set minimum rate. This rate is typically lower than you would get on a traditional universal life policy. This gives the insured a chance to participate in the gains in the stock market, but prevents losses from a downturn. You will receive a guaranteed interest rate of slightly lower than a regular universal life policy.
In conclusion, the Aviva Life Insurance Company is a fairly solid company financially and has several of the higher ratings given out by the credit rating companies. They do business globally so their risk is diversified to a number of different countries. The company is one of the largest insurance companies in the world which makes them a bit more reliable. They are headquartered in the UK and this is obviously their biggest market, although they do business in many different areas.
They have a variety of different types of insurance policies, however they do not have the traditional whole life policies many of the companies based in the US have. In the US they have slightly less than 1,000,000 customers and a little less than 30,000 agents.
They are much better known in the UK which is their primary market. Aviva Plc should continue to grow mainly because they have been better able to weather the economic crisis that has plagued much of the world. They will be able to easily make acquisitions of some of the smaller companies that may not be fairing as well. The parent company provides insurance and other financial services around the world.
How much life insurance do you and your family need? What kind of policy is best for you? What company should you choose? We’ll give you the tools to answer these questions.