The mutual dividend

The Friendly Society is owned by its members – there are no outside shareholders. We have accumulated capital over the years to enable us to run the with-profits fund, in particular to invest in equities whilst guaranteeing a minimum pay-out under our savings plans. Our pay-outs nowadays are closely based on what you pay in and the return on our funds (after meeting our
expenses and tax liabilities).

But the capital we have accumulated has grown to the point where we can plough some of it back into pay-outs. We will keep this under review, but we have already committed over £2 million to this purpose, enough to lift the investment return to our members by 1% per annum over the life of their plans to date.