Throwback Thursday: Lifeguard in difficulty
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to November 1975 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when Lifeguard Assurance ran into difficulty.
13 November 1975: Lifeguard Assurance in difficulties
Lifeguard Assurance, which had £35m in assets and 120,000 policyholders, ceased accepting new business.
The decision followed a warning from the Department of Trade, which in 1975 monitored all insurance companies.
The company was advised “new capital would be required to support further expansion”.
A spokesman for Alexander Howden, one of the shareholders, said the decision created the time “for all of us to examine it and see if it can be helped”.
Alexander Howden was a brokerage formed by CEO of Howden Group’s David Howden’s great-great-great grandfather for merchants to cover the risks of transporting precious goods from the Bay of Bengal.
Howden started his career as a broker at Alexander Howden in 1981.
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