Welcome to the Local Insurance Web sites
Local Insurance Mutual Company
P.O. Box 50, Lintuvaarantie 2, FI-02601 ESPOO, FINLAND
Tel. +358 20 522 2111, fax +358 20 522 2335
The Local Insurance Group
The Local Insurance Group comprises 84 insurance associations plus Local Insurance Mutual Company and the Federation of the Local Insurance Group.
The Local Insurance Group is Finland's 5th biggest non-life insurer in terms of premium income. Its market share is 8,5 per cent of Finnish direct insurance income. The Group has some 530,000 customers and it has responsibility for almost 1,500,000 policies.
Our policyholders are households and private individuals in the countryside, towns and cities. The Local Insurance Group is the market leader for farm insurance. Small and medium-size companies, both in the expanding countryside and in urban area, especially those in service industries, are in increasingly often our customers.
Local Insurance Mutual Company was founded in 1917 by the insurance associations to act as their own reinsurer. Reinsurance, which allows the insurance associations unlimited capacity for paying claims, is still the company's main function.
In the 1980s Local Insurance Mutual Company began to evolve into a strong, nationwide direct insurer. Its direct business consists mainly of statutory non-life insurance. The company is licensed for motor vehicle liability insurance and for statutory accident insurance. Since Local Insurance Mutual Company has customer service locations only in the Greater Helsinki area, the insurance associations act as the retail channel for these licensed types of business.
Local Insurance Mutual Company's head office is in Espoo near Helsinki.
The Insurance Associations are independent, mutual enterprises owned by their policyholders. They engage in voluntary non-life insurance in their own areas, and they are particularly active in fire insurance. They are not licensed to engage in statutory non-life policies, so they act as agents in motor vehicle liability insurance for Local Insurance Mutual Company.
The insurance associations have 200 service offices around Finland.
The insurance associations' business is based on shared risk. Their operations are subject to a special law, the Insurance Associations act. They are subject to supervision by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in the same way as other insurers.
Rural districts are a traditional stronghold of the insurance associations, which are direct descendants of the fire insurance societies of the 1770s. Today's insurance associations are increasingly active in the towns and cities as on insurer for households and small and medium-size enterprises.