Prudential Assurance Company

Gross written premiums less treaty (2000): £345.4m
Year company established: 1978
UK head office:
142 Holborn Bars
London
EC1M 2NH ...

Prudential Assurance Company

Gross written premiums less treaty (2000): £345.4m

Year company established: 1978
UK head office:
142 Holborn Bars
London
EC1M 2NH
Tel: 020 7220 7588
Fax: 020 7548 3725
Website: www.prudential.co.uk

Company history: Prudential is the largest life insurance company in the UK, with funds under management of over £130bn.Its main areas of business are life, pensions, short-, medium- and long-term savings, mortgages, investment management and general insurance.

It is the sixth-largest home insurer in the UK with more than 1.75 million household insurance customers. On 2 November 2001 Prudential announced it was transferring all of its UK personal lines general insurance business to Winterthur and its UK subsidiary Churchill.

Chief officer: Alan Cook, chief operating officer
Biography: Cook joined Prudential straight from school at the age of 17.
The majority of his career has been spent in general insurance, working in underwriting, claims, product design, process design and IT.

From 1976 to 1978, he was seconded to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) where he worked in their press office. In 1974, he qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
In addition to Prudential activities, Cook was involved with the CII as a joint secretary for the examiners' committee for four years and was chairman of the education and training committee.
In 1993, he was seconded to Jackson National Life, the wholly-owned Prudential subsidiary in Michigan, as senior vice president operations, for three years.

On his return to the UK in September 1996, he was appointed acquisition integration director working with the team that acquired Scottish Amicable. In April 1997, he was appointed general insurance director and became managing director in February 1998.

In 1999, he became managing director, retail insurance operations and in July 2000, chief executive, Prudential Insurance Services.

Main classes of business: Home, travel, creditor and motor.