Prudential was founded 1848 to provide professional people with loans secured by life assurance. This market broadened during the second half of the nineteenth century when insurance policies – penny premiums collected by agents – were sold to the working classes. Industrial insurance was an insurance innovation: Prudential combined actuarial methods (until then solely applied to the middle and upper classes) with the traditional friendly society and burial club method of direct selling through agents.
Prudential grew extremely quickly following the introduction of its Industrial Branch and by the 1900s the company insured one third of the UK population.
Expansion
New policies for single women, family and home protection were introduced following the First World War and a further range of products was initiated in 1929 with the establishment of group pensions. During the 1950s and 1960s, Prudential focused on life cover, long term savings products and retirement annuities. By the 1970s Prudential had established a wide range of assurance, investment and savings products.
Recent Events
Prudential's UK Insurance Operations today provide a range of financial products and services. It continues to lead the market in its chosen product areas, including corporate pensions and bulk and individual annuities and has also extended its product range to include PruFund, a transparent smoothed investment product and PruHealth, an innovative health insurance product.
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