Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows PLC
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	1815
Headquarters	Morrison Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Key people	Lord Leitch, Chairman ; Andy Briggs, Managing Director
Products	Life assurance; Pensions; Banking
Number of employees	3,000 (2008)
Parent	Lloyds Banking Group
Website	www.scottishwidows.co.uk

Scottish Widows PLC is an investment company located in Edinburgh, Scotland, now a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group.

Scottish Widows HQ, Morrison Street, Edinburgh

Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society opened in 1815 in what is now Chambers Street, as Scotland's first mutual life office. The formation of the society had been discussed from March 1812 with the purpose of providing for widows, sisters and other female relatives of fund holders so that they would not be plunged into poverty on the death of the fund holder during and after Napoleonic wars.

Its most famous early customer was Sir Walter Scott who took out a policy in 1824. Scottish Widows used this fact in advertising to promote their products during the 1890s. However, they did not mention that the following year, Scott narrowly averted being declared bankrupt and died heavily in debt.

Scottish Widows & Orphans Fund moved to No 9 St Andrew Square in Edinburgh which had been built in 1846 by David Bryce for the Western Bank. It was the Head Office for many years until they replaced the building in 1962. "No. 9" was demolished to a huge outcry and a modern building designed by Basil Spence was put in its place. This continued to be the Head Office until the 1970s when a new building was erected on Dalkeith Road, opposite the Commonwealth Pool. This remained the main office until a new building was erected in Morrison Street, although the main address remains Dalkeith Road.

One of Scottish Widows main call centres is also based in Edinburgh, close by to the University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls of Residence on Dalkeith Road.

Scottish Widows demutualised and became part of the Lloyds Banking Group on 3 March 2000.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership is fully owned by Scottish Widows Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. It is one of the largest fund management houses in the UK and Europe. It manages broad range of assets covering global equities, real estate, corporate bonds and government bonds. At 31 December 2007 assets under management were in the region of 100 billion GBP.

Since 1 July 2009 the sales teams of Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical have been merged together, with the Clerical Medical brand in the process of being phased out.^[1]

The Scottish Widow

The Scottish Widow first appeared in a television advert directed by David Bailey in 1986. There have been three 'Widows' to date: Deborah Moore 1986–1994, Amanda Lamb 1994–2005 and Hayley Hunt 2005–present.