Sheffield Mutual announces growth in key areas

We have today announced our financial results for 2018, with the main highlights being the growth in assets of 4% and a 3% growth in membership - largely due to the continued popularity of our with-profits Investment ISA and regular premium plans.

2018 Business & Financial Highlights:

• Total assets increased by 4% to £144.3 million (2017: £138.4 million)
• Traditional membership grew by 3% to 11,635 (2017: 11,294)
• Total number of traditional policies increased by 5% to 15,604 (2017: 14,837)
• Including the Child Trust Fund the Society now has 78,953 policies and accounts

The Society has retained a strong financial base with available capital resources of £14.8 million, which are the surplus assets in excess of capital reserves. We have also maintained healthy solvency coverage at 152% of the regulatory solvency capital requirement.  

Due to a slump in global investment markets during the final quarter of the year, our with-profits fund generated an overall investment return of -0.47%.  The Society’s property portfolio performed strongly however, delivering a respectable 6% return, offsetting some of the unrealised losses on equities.  Despite a less favourable year for our investment portfolio, through the process of smoothing we are able to rely on previous years’ excellent returns (2017: 8.01%, 2016: 7.22%) to maintain competitive annual bonus rates for all policies and terminal (final) bonuses for applicable policies.

Commenting on the results, Jamie Bellamy, Chief Executive, said: "The Society has continued to grow organically whilst maintaining highly competitive rates, despite a backdrop of investment and economic uncertainty.  We believe that due to our mutual ethos we’re trusted by our members to continue to offer stability and excellent member service standards.”