About Us > Mutuality > Mutuality
Mutuality
Maximum benefit to customers
We believe mutuality is the best way of providing maximum benefit to our customers. A mutual society is run in the interests of its members and other policyholders and is not listed on the stock market or owned externally. This means that we do not have to pay any of our surplus (or profits) to shareholders, as is the case with plcs. We can therefore pass on this advantage to our policyholders through higher payouts from our with profits fund.
Member involvement
Royal London welcomes the involvement of members, who are entitled to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting. In fact, we have changed our Articles of Association* to allow proxy voting to ensure all members can have their say, even if they can’t attend a meeting.
* The Articles of Association are the legal constitution of a company and govern the internal relationship between the company and its members or shareholders. They deal with internal matters such as general meetings, appointment of directors, issue and transfer of shares, dividends, accounts and audits.
It’s the management that counts
We believe the way a business is run is more important than its actual corporate structure.
We have devoted a lot of time and consideration to our management process and structure and operate to a high level of governance. In this, we perform many of the checks and balances that are demanded of a plc.
