Do you think you have an Industrial Branch policy that hasn’t been claimed?

Industrial Branch policies were provided by Britannic Assurance, Pearl Assurance and Swiss Life until 1997. Generally, you would pay weekly premiums to an agent who visited you at home. The most common reasons for taking out these policies were to pay for funeral expenses or to save a lump sum that would be paid out when the policy matured.

If you think you have an unclaimed policy, we’ll be happy to check for you. We’ll need to know:

• The full name (including any maiden name) and date of birth of the life assured or policyholder.
• The policy number — you’ll find it on the policy document or premium receipt book.
• The policyholder’s current or last known address and any previous addresses you know about.

If you have an old premium receipt book showing the amount and date of the final premium, that will help us too. We’ll do everything we can to trace the policy. The more information you can give us, the easier that will be.

For Britannic Assurance policies, call 0345 305 5552.

For Pearl Assurance policies, call 0345 880 0088.

For Swiss Life policies, call 0800 026 2830.

To help you identify if you had a policy here’s the list of companies Swiss Life took over and then ran the policies:-

• Companies administered by Swiss Life included:
• Blackburn Assurance Limited
• Blackburn Philanthropic Burial Society
• Bristol, West of England and South Wales Friendly Collecting Society
• City of Birmingham Friendly Society
• National Friendly Collecting Society
• Pioneer Life Assurance Company Limited
• Pioneer Mutual Insurance Company Limited
• Preston Philanthropic
• Royal Co-operative Collecting Society
• Stamford Mutual insurance company Limited

If you think you have an unclaimed policy with any other company, start by calling them directly. They’ll tell you the information you need to provide to help them trace it.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) offers a free service that helps you search for a policy that may now be taken care of by another provider.
It’s called a register of consolidations and you can find out more from the ABI website.