Financial Services

Insurance & Pensions

Edinburgh has been a major centre for insurance and pensions since 1812, when a group of entrepreneurs met in the Royal Exchange Coffee Rooms to discuss the creation of "a general fund for securing provisions to widows, sisters and other females" of those who died in the Napoleonic Wars. Over two centuries later, the industry employs more than 5,000 people in Edinburgh in workplace and individual pensions, insurance, assurance, annuities, critical illness cover, and related fields.

Scottish Widows, Scotland's oldest insurer, has been headquartered in the city since it was founded in 1815. Edinburgh is also home to the UK head office of the Dutch insurance and pensions company Aegon. Other leading companies with operations in Edinburgh include the insurers Royal London and Standard Life Assurance (Phoenix Group); the pensions, insurance, and risk professional services provider Aon; pensions administrator Aptia; insurance brokers and risk advisers such as JLT, Lycetts, and Marsh; pensions, investments, and benefits advisers such as Hymans Robertson; and occupational pension scheme trusteeship and governance services provider Independent Governance Group. The city is also home to specialised firms such as Church of Scotland Insurance Services.

"Phoenix now has over half of its employees in Scotland. We are proud to have entered the very successful Scottish financial services sector, and to have a new operational HQ in Edinburgh."

– Susan McInnes, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Life Assurance (Phoenix Group)

The sector is supported by specialist fintech companies such as the iPensions Group (which provides a range of pension administration products), Origo (the developer of Pensions Dashboard, a product that enables customers to holistically manage all their pension pots) and Cuvva (the developer of Cuvva, an app for quickly purchasing short-term car insurance).

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