Zurich Insurance has named Theo Bouts the new Chief Operating Officer of Global Life, an arm of the Zurich group.
Mr Bouts is currently the CEO of the Zurich Insurance unit dealing with direct European business and partnerships, a role he will give up on 1 August to take up his new position. Having been with Zurich for only three years Mr Bouts has already taken a couple of key roles within the organisation, being seen as a key player in senior management.
His existing role is seen as critical to maintaining and developing a strong multi channel distribution policy, something Zurich Insurance do not want to lose. For this reason Mr Bouts will take a little time to fully hand over the reins of his existing role until a suitable successor is found.
According to a new poll by Post Office Insurance the average adult in the UK believes they are worth around GBP350,000.
Over 2,000 people were polled by Post Office Insurance to try and find out the perceptions people have about themselves and how much of a contribution they make. People were asked to add up their value, with the average amount providing the GBP350,000 figure shown above. There were regional variations of course, with London way ahead of anywhere else at GBP500,000 while the East Midlands came in bottom, averaging GBP300,000.
Interestingly, having realised how much was at stake, nearly 40 percent of respondents felt that it was important for them to take out life insurance. A Post Office Insurance spokesman was very pleased to see this response and hoped that they would indeed get their lives protected since the financial consequences of not doing were clearly considerable.
Top level managers at Hastings Direct insurance company have denied rumours that job losses will be greater than that already advised.
The local newspaper in Bexhill, where Hastings Direct are the towns biggest employer, has been receiving anonymous calls saying that rather than the ten job losses that had been stated there were in fact over fifty less jobs at the company now. There was also speculation that more reductions were on the way.
To clarify the position the company released a statement in which it was made clear that redundancies would add up to ten at the most, coming from a review of operations that had been underway for some time. Any other reductions in the number of jobs had come naturally, either via retirement or by people not being replaced if they left.
Hastings Direct also wanted to confirm they are a very active and successful participant in the insurance market, with plans to develop further in the future. They also intend to retain their Bexhill offices as the centre of operations, aiming to grow further as the business expands.
