About Pioneer

Above all else, over 100 years of experience has taught us the importance of financial protection - the reassurance and the crucial support that it can provide when people need it most.

In 2008 Pioneer added to our experience by merging with the Exeter Friendly Society. We now see ourselves as an integrated healthcare company that provides a range of complementary protection products for the benefit of our customers and their families, enabling them to minimise the impact and cost of ill-health.

Our company is a mutual friendly society and we only work for our customers. Mutual organisations are not owned by external shareholders (like a PLC) but work for, and only answer to, customers like yours.

We believe this is important because:

• With no shareholders to pay, mutual insurers like us can ensure that their profits are reinvested to give policyholders better returns, better value and higher levels of service. In contrast, a PLC has to pay shareholder dividends from the profits it makes each year
• We believe that our staff want to try that bit harder because our customers are members of the organisation they work for
• We are proud of the fact that we provide protection products that paid 98.1% of all claims received during 2008