In 1823, James Duncan, a
Glasgow accountant, founded the West of Scotland Fire Insurance Company. The initial capital was raised from Duncan's friends and local merchants. At the first
annual general meeting Duncan proposed the formation of a life office to operate in tandem with the fire company. The life company, West of Scotland Life Insurance, was founded in 1826. with Duncan manager of both companies. In 1832, the life company decided to mutualise, modelling itself on
The Equitable Life Assurance Society, adopting the new name of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society and becoming incorporated in 1849. James Duncan resigned in 1839 through ill health, The new manager was William Spens, an accountant with Edinburgh Life; the Spens family connection continued for over a century. Spens pursued an expansionary policy. There was already a branch in
Edinburgh and between 1841 and 1852 branches were opened in the three capital cities of
Belfast,
London and
Dublin. The London branch became increasingly important, directly serving many important English cities. In the meantime, West of Scotland Fire was experiencing financial difficulties and was sold to Phoenix Fire in 1842. There was a modest branch expansion around the turn of the century with
Birmingham,
Newcastle and
Bristol. By 1930, the Society was operating out of 14 branches, and by the
Second World War, Scottish Amicable was operating out of 16 branches and numerous satellite offices. By the early 20th century, the Society was comfortably within the top ten Scottish life companies. One of the innovations which was to prove of great significance to Scottish Amicable had its beginnings just before the Second World War when a Group life and pensions department was started in London. This was expanded rapidly after the War and by 1951 pensions income was almost equal to traditional life insurance; by 1968 it was around 60%. Another major departure for Scottish Amicable was the decision in 1959 to investigate the possibility of opening in Australia. A
Melbourne office was opened in 1960 and by 1965 income was treble expectations. A year later, the directors reported that there were five Australian branches. Back home, an active branch expansion programme continued with almost fifty branches opened between 1947 and 1975. In January 1997, Scottish Amicable announced a plan to demutualise with the intention of listing on the
London Stock Exchange within a further three to six years. This precipitated a bidding war for the Society. At the end of January, it received a bid from
Abbey National worth up to £1.4 billion. Scottish Amicable rejected the bid from Abbey National on the basis that it was "too vague". There were also concerns about potential job losses among the staff at Craigforth. A week later Prudential Assurance offered £1.96 billion. After
AMP Limited also lodged a formal bid, which was rejected, Prudential Assurance succeeded with an offer of £2.8 billion.
The Wall Street Journal said, that with this deal, "Mergermania Has Hit European Companies". The deal involved Prudential Assurance injecting £531 million into Scottish Amicable so that it could make a payment of £562 million to policyholders.
The New York Times explained that the UK Government was encouraging the British people to reduce their dependence on social security payments in retirement, and instead was encouraging people to take out life assurance policies. The newspaper said, in the context of the UK Government policy, the deal meant that "consolidation of the British life insurance industry [was] accelerating". At an Extraordinary General Meeting on 26 June 1997, members approved the transfer of the business to Prudential Assurance with effect from 30 September 1997. No new business was written after that date and Scottish Amicable ceased trading. The Scottish Amicable brand was formally dropped by Prudential Assurance in November 2001. The Scottish Amicable Insurance Fund policies were formally merged into the Prudential With-Profits Sub Fund in April 2021 after it was predicted that the assets would fall below a specified level, specifically £1 billion, in 2024. ==Head office==