New UK broker launched targeting LGBT community
A new insurance broker has been launched in the UK designed to cater for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, a section of society the company claims is unhappy with the way its members are treated by insurers.
Emerald Life will sell a range of products underwritten by UK General and ANV. It has been founded by a number of individual investors including chairman Steve Wardlaw, a former business lawyer who ran the Moscow office of US law firm Baker Botts for eight years; and chief executive Heidi McCormack, a former executive director of new business development at General Motors in Russia.
The company calls itself the UK’s first full-service insurance provider designed and tailored for the gay and lesbian community. While it wants to eventually offer a wide range of financial, legal and lifestyle services, the company is initially offering home insurance, term life insurance, wedding insurance and pet insurance with travel coverage to follow shortly.
Targeting the estimated 2.2 million LGBT adults over the age of 30 in the UK today, Emerald Life cites a survey it conducted which shows that almost eight in 10 members of the LGBT community (79%) that said they would change the way insurance companies treated them.
Wardlaw said: “For me, it is a matter of serious concern that even in these more enlightened times, the LGBT community does not have true equality of experience in the financial sector. Our community is becoming much more demanding than it used to be – and rightly so.
“Historically, if you got something that was second best you were left to feel somehow grateful that a provider would even deal with you in the first place. It is hard for big insurers to be nimble and adapt to the subtle and specific things that matter to the LGBT community; they struggle to keep up with the times. We have designed a solution from scratch where our community will know they’ve been thought about from day one.”
McCormack added: “I am passionate about equality, I am passionate about people being able to be themselves and empowering that. With insurance, it is time to level the playing field. We are redefining the customer experience and prioritising our resources on LGBT focused initiatives that will help us grow with the needs of the community and continually improve our delivery of high quality services. At Emerald, it’s not just about providing a set of insurance products, we want the inequalities we have highlighted become a thing of the past.”
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