Home / Types of Life Insurance Policies / - Prudential, Life Insurance Company
Prudential was founded in 1848 as the Mutual Assurance and Loan Association and currently has its head office in London. Prudential has around 23,000 employees and operates in 12 countries in Asia. Prudential also owns M&G Investments, Jackson National Life in the United States, and Prudential Corporation Asia.
Prudential has over 21 million customers worldwide and has around £238 billion of funds under management (30/06/2006). Worldwide Prudential employ more than 23,000 people and the shareholders number 60,942 (31/12/2006).
Prudential Corporate Asia has over 24 operations in 12 countries including India, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam and China.
In the UK the business currently employs some 6,700 full-time staff located in offices in Stirling, Reading, Belfast, London, Dublin and Mumbai.
Prudential UK left the general insurance (buildings, contents and car) market in 2002 when it licensed Churchill Insurance, (now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group) to use the Prudential name.
Most recently Prudential has launched a new style of Personal Protection Plan which includes a ground breaking alternative to critical illness cover that it calls Serious Illness Cover. This policy covers far more “critical” conditions, (up to 140 conditions) but pays out on a severity basis, rather than an “all or nothing” basis.
On 29th January 2007 the Prudential announced that it had agreed to sell Egg Banking plc ("Egg"), the Prudential’s UK banking business, to Citigroup for £575 million in cash.
06 August 2008 17:27:22
An antibiotic developed from maggots may be used to fend off different types of bacteria including certain types of the deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Fox news reported.
Students from Swansea undertook the study and they believe that maggots may now be used to fight superbug infections in hospitals.
Those with life insurance policies maybe interested to know that the team developed a drug called Seraticin that is made from secretions of green bottle fly larvae.
They now believe that they may be able to tackle up to 12 strains of the superbug and that it could be effective against E.coli and C.diff.
Live maggots have recently been used on patient's wounds to help fight MRSA by eating dead tissue, the Mirror reported.
UK life insurance policyholders have learnt that new research from the US has found that patients who are carrying MRSA for long periods of time are at an increased risk of infection and death.
06 August 2008 17:22:31
Those without life insurance policies will be pleased to hear about a proposed program that involves vaccinating children against flu in order to provide protection for the rest of the population.
Whilst the Daily Mail claimed that running the programme could cut flu infection rates by 70 per cent, the Daily Telegraph reported that "flu could be virtually wiped out if all under 16s were vaccinated against the disease".
A similar programe was considered and subsequently rejected in 2006 by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, the NHS reported.
New research published in the Lancet this week suggested that the influenza vaccine did not provide as much protection as was previously thought.
In the study a group of 3,500 individuals were tested and it was uncovered that in those over 65 there was no link between the flu vaccination and the risk of those people contracting pneumonia.
UK life insurance provides cover in case of injury or illness.
05 August 2008 17:34:54
Those with and without life insurance policies may be interested to know that a trial of a vaccine for HIV patients which allows them to take breaks from their regular medication is planned, the BBC reported.
The trial, which was announced at the Aids 2008 conference in Mexico City, will involve 345 patients in both the US and Europe and the results are due by the end of 2009.
It is hoped that the vaccine could help alleviate side effects associated with the drugs currently used to treat the virus and may help delay the emergence of strains of HIV that are resistant to the drugs.
Dr Barry Peters, of Kings College London, who is leading the research in the UK, said: "A successful immunotherapeutic HIV vaccine would give patients and doctors enormous advantages over current treatments, both in developed and developing countries."
Whilst Dr Peters has qualified that the vaccine being trialled is not the "complete answer", it could go some way to helping produce a "full" vaccine.
UK life insurance provides policy holders with cover in case of illness or injury.
