Ecclesiastical Insurance parent company becomes the Benefact Group

The new name and brand identity mark an ambitious new chapter for the charitable owned Group and its family of global specialist businesses including Ecclesiastical Insurance.   

Owned by a registered charity, Benefact Trust, Benefact Group exists to give its profits to good causes. The new name1 better reflects the Group’s diversity, breadth and purpose, – it derives from Latin and means to do well by supporting a person or good cause.

Originally created to protect parish churches from fire, the Group has been in existence for over 130 years and has grown to become an international family of three divisions: insurance, investments, and broker and advisory, with operations in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. It includes over 30 specialist financial businesses including Ecclesiastical Insurance, EdenTree Investment Management, SEIB, Lycetts and Lloyd & White brokers. Ecclesiastical Insurance, and all of the Group’s other trading brands, will continue to operate under their own names with the addition of being ‘proudly part of the Benefact Group’. 

Benefact Group, which owns Ecclesiastical Insurance, continues to grow its contribution in Ireland to charitable causes year on year. The Group has ambitious plans to give £250million to good causes by 2025 as all of the Group’s available profits are donated to charities to help transform lives and communities. All of the Group’s trading brands will operate to the same high ethical standards, united in a belief that better business can mean better lives, beyond business and out into our communities.

The Benefact Group, formerly named Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, has already given over £100million to good causes in recent years through various programmes such as the Movement for Good awards, which accepts charitable nominations from both its customers and the wider public. It also gives a proportion of its profits to its charitable owner, the Benefact Trust, who help transform lives and communities.

The Group’s giving and donations support a wide range of causes across different sectors and in Ireland charities including Children Books Ireland, Kid’s Own, and Citywise Education have all benefitted from Ecclesiastical’s charitable donations through its parent company.

Mark Hews, Group Chief Executive at Benefact Group, said: “Benefact Group, the fourth largest corporate donor in the UK, is a very different financial services group. We are owned by a charity which means all our available profits can be given to good causes. As a company whose purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society, charitable giving is at the heart of what we do. I’m very proud of our new name which reflects our unique purpose, the breadth of our offering to our trading partners and marks an ambitious new chapter for the Group and our family of specialist businesses.” 

David Lane, Managing Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance, proudly part of the Benefact Group, said: “This new name for our parent, Benefact Group, is an important step for an international business with a family of brands.  As a key brand within the group and one that is well known and deeply trusted, Ecclesiastical Insurance Ireland, remains the same, operating with an additional description, ‘Ecclesiastical Insurance, proudly part of the Benefact Group’.  Not only will our name stay the same, so too will our reliable and specialist service ethos. We are also as focused as ever on building our presence in Ireland in our key sectors – charity, heritage, faith, and education. We will continue to work hard to support our partners – the brokers we work with, the organisations whose risks we insure, and the many great causes that all of our available profits are donated to. We are proud to be Ecclesiastical. And we are proud that Ecclesiastical is part of the Benefact Group.”

To learn more about the Benefact Group and its purpose visit: www.benefactgroup.com