MetLife and Everest Funeral Concierge announce new strategic partnership for UK Group Life Market

October 17, 2022

  • MetLife adds Everest’s Funeral Concierge service to its group life proposition
  • New arrangement marks Everest’s first partnership in UK market

17 October 2022 – MetLife today announces a new strategic partnership with international funeral planning and concierge service firm Everest. As part of this initial three-year exclusive arrangement, MetLife will offer funeral support services to more than 1.4 million UK employees, via its Group Life insurance arrangements.

The partnership marks Everest’s entry into the UK market and its first venture outside of North America, where it has a customer base of more than 25million and has operated since 2001.

Everest’s UK business will be led by Chairman, Mark Wood. Mr Wood has significant expertise in the UK insurance markets, having previously held senior roles including CEO of AXA UK, CEO of Prudential Europe, and founder of pension buyout firm Paternoster. He is also currently chair of Pensions Bee.

As part of the new arrangement, MetLife’s Group Life customers will be able to access comprehensive end-of-life planning services and extensive support to help their families in the event of their death. With 24/7 adviser support and assistance, along with a suite of online planning tools, customers and their families will benefit from help making difficult financial and emotional decisions. Additionally, customers will be able to use a digital vault to ensure individuals can leave their important documents easily accessible for those bereaved, as well as a free will writing service.

Mark Wood, Chairman, Everest, comments:

“We are bringing Everest to the UK in partnership with MetLife, a truly innovative and passionate insurer. This is a unique offering providing families with significant additional support during an incredibly challenging time. Through our partnership with MetLife, we are here to help people to organise their affairs and support bereaved next of kin through a period of grief. We want to give people time to grieve.”

Commenting on the partnership, Dominic Grinstead, Managing Director, MetLife said:

“Today’s announcement represents a key part of MetLife’s UK growth ambitions, as we continue to enhance our group life proposition. Against a challenging economic backdrop, there has never been a greater need for protection and valuable insurance and support for UK households.

“All too often insurance focuses on the claim payment but, through our partnership with Everest, we are pleased to be able to offer all our group life customers access to a range of support services extending beyond that financial transaction. This support, we believe, will be especially valuable for families at times of bereavement and loss as they face difficult emotional decisions which can often be compounded by challenging financial circumstances.”

The product supports policyholders in setting financial and other plans through Everest's many planning tools, with assistance from Everest’s expert advisors. In the event of the employee dying, Everest then assists the beneficiaries with the following:

- Funeral arrangements and service from any funeral provider worldwide

- 24/7 access to expert advisors Find out more about MetLife’s Group Life proposition.

Find out more about MetLife’s Group Life proposition.

More about the Everest product:

Access to expert advisors 24/7

Everest provides 24/7 assistance throughout the funeral process and empowers families to make well-thought-out decisions by providing pricing information in an easy-to-understand format and presenting all service and merchandise options that are available.

As an independent consumer advocate, Everest is not associated with any funeral provider and does not profit from any of the family’s decisions.

Peace of mind

As an independent consumer advocate, Everest provides peace of mind and confidence when making difficult financial and emotional decisions.

In addition to 24/7 Advisor assistance, Everest also provides a suite of online planning tools which help a family organize and communicate their wishes. Online tools include:

• Everest PriceFinder: a proprietary database which produces detailed, local funeral provider price comparisons.

• Willprep: a simple will and estates document stored online: a secure cloud-based data vault for storing unlimited personal information

• Tenzing: A secure cloud-based data vault for storing unlimited personal information.

• Funeral planning tools: 10 Key Decisions, My Wishes Plan, Personal Profile and more.