Lighthouse Group PLC Affinity contract renewal

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Lighthouse Group PLC

10 February 2017

 
 Press Release 
 

Lighthouse Group plc

("Lighthouse" or the "Group")

Affinity contract renewal

Lighthouse Group plc (AIM: LGT), the national financial advisory group and preferred financial adviser to 19 affinity partners with a combined membership of more than 6 million individuals, is pleased to announce that it has agreed the renewal of its contract with The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers ("Usdaw"). Lighthouse will act as the preferred provider of financial advice to its members, supplying holistic financial reviews encompassing investments, retirement planning, mortgages and protection, for a further three years from 1 February 2017.

Usdaw was established in 1891 and is one of the largest trade unions in Britain, with over 434,000 members nationwide. Usdaw provides support and representation to workers across a wide variety of workplaces, including all major retailers, food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, warehousing and distribution and home shopping, plus a range of other industries.

The renewal of this contract, which was originally secured in March 2013, underlines Lighthouse's impressive list of affinity partnerships, which includes major employee organisations such as UNISON, Unite, BA Clubs, Prospect, Boundless (formerly the Civil Service Motoring Association) and the Royal College of Nursing. This further highlights Lighthouse's capacity to deliver financial planning solutions to a diverse and substantial audience.

John Hannett, General Secretary of Usdaw, commented: "We are delighted to have secured this contract renewal with Lighthouse, which will enable us to continue to facilitate financial planning assistance for our members. Given the truly national basis of our membership, it is important to us to continue to partner with an organisation which is clearly capable of supporting our members no matter where they may reside and no matter what their background. We look forward to continuing to build our relationship with Lighthouse and ensuring that our members are able to secure good service and consistent financial advice".

Malcolm Streatfield, Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse commented: "The Board is delighted that we have secured this contract renewal with Usdaw, which further endorses the quality of service and financial planning assistance which Lighthouse Financial Advice makes available to all participating members in our affinity groups. We look forward to further developing our relationship with Usdaw over the coming years. The Board remains committed to increasing our affinity partnerships throughout the UK".

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For further information, please contact:

 
 Lighthouse Group plc 
 Malcolm Streatfield -                   Tel: [phone] 
  Chief Executive                                        5640 
                                   www.lighthousegroup.plc.uk 
                          [e-mail] 
 

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About Lighthouse Group plc

Lighthouse has been listed on AIM since 2000 as an integrated financial services company for investors, coupled with significant scale in terms of distribution through financial advisers and wealth managers and its fully diversified business model.

As one of the UK's largest autonomous financial advice and wealth management groups, Lighthouse provides a comprehensive range of services to businesses and individuals and is retained by most of the major trades unions and other affinity groups to advise their combined memberships of over 6 million members.

The Group aims to increase its relationships with, and the benefits it derives from, its relationships with affinity groups and professional partners.

In addition to a wide range of financial advice, the Group has developed innovative products to meet the specific needs of its retail and corporate customers. These comprise:

-- Luceo Asset Management, launched in September 2016 to provide a range of investment solutions to retail investors. The initial three solutions comprise multi-manager, fund of fund, investment portfolios matching to customers' agreed risk profiles, with Octopus Investments Limited as the initial Investment Adviser and the newly established Lighthouse Zurich Platform, in partnership with Zurich; and

-- The Lighthouse Pensions and Life Trusts, unbundled multi-employer Master Trust products that provide cost-effective and one-stop shop solutions for small- and medium- sized enterprises ("SMEs"), to meet their obligations to establish auto-enrolment compliant pension schemes for their employees by 31 March 2018. (up to 1 million SMEs have to do so) and provide death-in-service life assurance cover for all of their employees aged between 16 and 65, for the same cost per benefit, at very competitive rates, regardless of age, gender, location or pre-existing medical conditions.

Lighthouse operates from its headquarters in London as well as having principal operating offices in Stockport and Woodingdean, near Brighton.

For more information please visit: http://www.lighthousegroup.plc.uk/

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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February 10, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)