About us
The Services Family Limited
People admire the straightforward, straight-talking way the UK’s Armed Forces get things done. That’s why our company lives the values of our service men and women and meets the needs of all those who prize, champion or devote themselves to public service.
We are a Veterans’ business founded to improve the access and fairness in personal and business insurance. Later, we will expand to a wide range of financial services.
The Services Family Limited (TSFL) was founded in response to the disadvantages suffered by members of the Services Family (the Armed Forces, Veterans and the Blue light services and all of their families) when accessing financial products, which are really designed for civilian lifestyles. These disadvantages are due to both career paths and a ‘non-standard lifestyle’ which can give rise to ‘wonky’ or ‘thin’ credit histories and unique insurance needs. Consequently, many members of our ‘Family’ do not match the standard financial assessment of equivalent civvy applicants and this issue can also impact our dependants.
As veterans ourselves, we experienced and understand these issues and soon realised that other ‘niche’ groups also were suffering, namely; business start-ups, self-employed trades people, junior doctors, nurses, students, and returning overseas workers.
Simply put, ‘people like us’ with careers that move around the country or the globe have “unsatisfactory” financial histories and poorer credit ratings than are justified – and in this era of online application processing that means real issues for us and our families.
If a High Street financial institutions doesn’t assess adequately the risk profile of a non-standard applicant it can mean either over-charging or, in the worst cases, a refusal to offer ‘best’ prices or access to cheaper mass products.
Practically, the root of this unfairness is a predominantly backward-looking approach to credit and insurance risk. So even after leaving the Services it can still take several years before financial disadvantages fall away and a new personal applicant or a start-up business can ‘compete equally’ with more ‘conventional’ people or businesses.
TSFL’s approach is to be different. Data techniques and experience help us understand our customers and frame the context of their current situation and recent history; this will deliver a better assessment of their risk profiles as niche groups.
Our mission is to address the anomaly that many dedicated, highly professional and trustworthy individuals of the Services Family face simply because they don’t fit the ‘standard’ model.
Why Small Businesses? We’re helping Service leavers and entrepreneurs!
As we started as a small business we thought we’d address that area first.
The current environment, made worse by COVID-19, hammers micro-businesses in key sectors of our economy and this is a sector where there is the greatest potential for growth and to make a real difference in the wider economy. Few are aware that there are over 5.2 million businesses who have under 10 employees and over 250,000 are run by veterans or military spouses.
TSFL ‘is on a mission’ to support our economy’s micro-businesses through better access to fair and affordable business insurance, support tools and, in the future, finance and funding.
Many experienced military personnel leave to become self-employed in the “professional sector” too and we have Professional Indemnity insurance packages which you can take out when you need it and for how long you need it – not necessarily just an annual policy.
Also, we know that about 30% of military leavers go into the ‘skilled trades’ as electricians or plumbers etc. The country is crying out for these and we provide simple and straightforward cover for trades people.
For Service leavers, veterans and family members there is a service discount scheme.
What about those still serving in the UK Armed Forces?
We’ve designed a military only Home, kit and contents insurance policy for MoD accommodation specifically to make their lives easier. We had first-hand experience of the penalties of high mobility in the active military we knew how to design a policy to fit the military life-style. We hope to launch this product early in 2023.
Next?
We want to build new products to help those ‘Blue Light’ key workers and veterans who need simply and tailored insurance solutions. For example, did you know that there are over 2 million veteran pensioners? On state pensions, they often cannot afford a hefty single annual insurance bill so get charged extra for those “convenient” monthly payments. We’d like to address that – soon!