13 December 2018
Foresters Friendly Society maintains best in class With-Profits league performance
Foresters Friendly Society has once again been commended in the annual Barnett Waddingham UK With-Profits survey*. For the past 5 years, Barnett Waddingham has surveyed the with profits sector comparing the performance of these funds. With average 1 year returns of 6.22% and five year returns of 6.85% which are both significantly in excess of inflation and interest rates available over the period, the good news is that the with profits sector is capable of providing competitive returns.
The survey, which compares fund performance for 52 with profits funds from 20 providers, shows that Foresters Friendly Society’s open fund, the Order Insurance with profits fund, performed as follows:
Highlights from the survey show that the Foresters fund:
- Significantly outperformed other directly comparable funds for both investment periods, most notably on the 5 year annualised returns with a return of over double that of the average small fund.
- Also provided higher returns over the 5 year period than the average return from the largest with profits funds.
- Was rated 6th overall out of the 52 funds surveyed for investment returns demonstrating the strength of return that Foresters with profits plans can provide.
Myles Edwards, Membership Director at Foresters Friendly Society, said, “At a time when interest rates are continuously low and investors may be looking for less risky alternatives to pure stock market investments, we are delighted that this survey has, once again, highlighted Foresters’ first class performance particularly over the past 5 years.
We want to highlight the importance and value of long term saving for everyone. The latest HMRC ISA report** shows that savers are migrating from cash ISAs into Stocks & Shares and with profits ISAs which could indicate that savers are becoming more switched on to the possibility of better returns from these types of ISAs.
As a mutual society that puts our members at the heart of all we do, our aim is to provide members with a range of straightforward financial solutions whatever their long-term goal may be. In 2017 we paid out £2.6million in the form of final bonuses to policyholders and £0.8million in annual bonuses added to their guaranteed benefits. Having invested in our active fund management capability in 2018 and beyond to strengthen our future performance, coupled with our already strong investment performance, Foresters really does provide consumers with a viable option to consider which is reinforced by 97% of our members feeling completely satisfied with the service we provide.”
*The survey, December 2017, looked at the investment strategies of UK with profits funds to understand the differences in investment returns over 2017. These figures were then compared with the figures from other providers to compare companies’ fund performance.
** Number of Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), amounts subscribed to each component, and average subscription updated 31 August 2018. The information in the tables comes from the annual returns that must be made to the HM Revenue and Customs by ISA managers.