Lighthouse Group PLC Lighthouse wins new affinity contract

TIDMLGT

Lighthouse Group PLC

04 May 2016

 
 Press Release   4 May 2016 
 

Lighthouse Group plc

("Lighthouse" or "the Group")

Lighthouse wins new affinity contract

Lighthouse Group plc (AIM: LGT), the national financial adviser of choice for Middle Britain, is pleased to announce that it has agreed a new contract with FosterTalk Limited ("FosterTalk"), as the preferred provider of expert financial advice to its members, encompassing retirement planning, mortgages and investments, for an initial two year period from 1 May 2016.

FosterTalk is an independent, not-for-profit provider of professional support services to some 30,000 foster carers across the UK. Over the past ten years FosterTalk has built a wide range of services for its members, including independent and impartial advice across a range of issues to providing preferential pricing arrangements.

This contract, which was won after a competitive tendering process, underlines Lighthouse's already impressive list of affinity partnerships within the medical and care sector, including Unite, the Royal College of Nursing and The Royal College of Midwives, as well as with other major employee organisations such as UNISON, Usdaw, BA Clubs and Prospect.

Melody Douglas, Managing Director of FosterTalk, commented: "We are delighted to have agreed this contract with Lighthouse, which will enable us to facilitate financial planning assistance and solutions for our members on a truly national basis. We look forward to developing our relationship with Lighthouse and ensuring that our members are able to secure robust and consistent financial advice."

Malcolm Streatfield, Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse commented: "The Board is delighted that we have won this contract with FosterTalk, which further endorses the high quality financial advice that Lighthouse Financial Advice provides all participating members in our affinity groups. We look forward to developing our relationship with FosterTalk over the coming years. The Board remains committed to increasing our affinity partnerships throughout the UK".

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

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

Media enquiries:

 
 Abchurch Communications 
 Jamie Hooper / Alex Shaw          Tel: [phone] 
 [e-mail]      www.abchurch-group.com 
 
 
 
   finnCap Limited 
 (Nominated Adviser and Broker   Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 
  to the Company) 
 Adrian Hargrave / Matt Goode 
  / Emily Watts 
 

About Lighthouse Group plc

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 5 million members.

Lighthouse has been listed on AIM since 2000 and presents 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.

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

In April 2014 Lighthouse announced the launch of its Lighthouse Pensions Trust ("LPT"), an unbundled multi-employer Master Trust product that provides a cost-effective and one-stop shop service to enable small- and medium- sized enterprises ("SMEs"), under the Group's Lighthouse Workplace Solutions ("LWS") branded service. Some 1.8 million SMEs are required to establish auto-enrolment compliant pension schemes for their employees between July 2015 and March 2018. LPT utilises target date funds managed by Alliance Bernstein, which manages $479 Billion of funds world-wide and is 63 per cent. owned by AXA, with Bridge Trustees Limited, a subsidiary of Eversheds LLP, acting as one of three corporate trustees and providing the Chair of the Trustee Board.

In June 2015 the Group announced an extension of its LWS offering with the launch of the Lighthouse Life Trust, again an unbundled multi-employer occupational Master Trust product that enables those businesses that have agreed to adopt LPT to meet their auto-enrolment obligations to 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. The scheme is underwritten by Zurich Assurance Limited with Bridge Trustees Limited as corporate trustee.

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

END

NRAFMGGKVFVGVZM

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 04, 2016 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)