Financial Stability

The General & Medical Group is a family owned Group with the owners still actively involved in the business. We have no outside shareholders requiring short term gains so we have been able to build a solid foundation for the long term future of the business.

We have traditional values when it comes to finance, we prefer to grow steadily and sustainably relying on the utilisation of our own funds rather than using Bank debt for growth. The Group has no debt and owns the freehold of its UK head office. This philosophy has served us well as we have seen many much larger businesses in the insurance markets come and go, caught up in the various economic storms that have hit over the years, whereas we have been able to sail on largely unaffected, ensuring the stability our clients require.

We have mainly seen steady growth over the last 35 years with only short periods of negative growth during the various economic downturns. Over the last five years we have had growth of around 6% per annum with the current year promising to be higher due to growth in our core UK private medical insurance market plus the additional revenue generated by the opening of new divisions.

Although we are always competitive within our chosen markets we never knowingly write loss making business just for growth which has enabled us to increase profitability over the years. We have achieved this due to sensible rating structures and prudent underwriting of the G&M private medical schemes and other Group covers.

With an insurance company in the Group we have to maintain a defined level of reserves to ensure we are capable of meeting our liabilities under the policies sold. In this regard due to our prudent outlook we regularly maintain reserves of between two to three times the minimums required by regulators with surplus funds being used to help the growth and development of the Group and to invest mainly in commercial property funds offering steady income.

Our financial activities are regulated and fully audited by independent reputable auditors on a regular basis to ensure we may maintain the high standards we set ourselves over the years. Our clients can therefore feel assured that they are buying from a well-run and secure Group. Read more in our G&M Group Report.