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1st November 2008

RIAS insurance supports blooming good cause

The RIAS Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal burst into bloom this week with an action packed Road Show at RIAS’s Bournemouth headquarters. Organisers launched the year long fund-raising project, which aims to raise £25,000 for the cancer care charity, by inviting RIAS insurance employees to sign up for a range of adventurous fund-raising activities including skydiving, mountain climbing, half marathons and driving challenges.

As well as motivating potential volunteers, the team of Marie Curie staff and RIAS volunteers, dressed for the occasion in official Marie Curie daffodil yellow t-shirts, shook their buckets to collect donations from the sale of Marie Curie daffodil pins, and ran a ‘Name the Marie Curie Teddy’ competition to win a large, very cuddly, teddy bear. Even the staff restaurant got into the fund-raising spirit by baking special edition muffins with bright yellow icing, which were sold with all proceeds to the charity. Including the money collected on the day, over £4,000 has so far been raised towards the target.

Janet Connor, RIAS insurances' Managing Director, said: “The RIAS Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal has got off to a really promising start, and we are hoping everyone will get involved in some way. Whether it’s climbing to the top of Ben Nevis, or doing a sponsored ‘no chocolate’ week at home, every single penny counts. Our aim is to reach the £25,000 target by the end of next June, and it will be exciting to see all the different ways people raise money for this worthwhile cause over the coming months.”

Marie Curie will also be benefiting benefit from the money raised on RIAS ‘dress down day’, the last Friday of every month when staff can come to work informally dressed in return for a £1 donation. There will also be a monthly ‘theme’ to motivate potential fund-raisers into action. This month the theme is: ‘Get in shape for Christmas’.

A simultaneous event was held on the same day at the RIAS office in Belfast. For more information about Marie Curie visit www.mariecurie.org.uk.

Janet Connor, Managing Director of RIAS insurance is available for further comment and interview. To arrange an interview with, or photography of, Janet, please call Sadie Sheppard on 01202 254489 or e-mail ssheppard@rias.co.uk

About RIAS

• RIAS was established in 1992 and is a specialist provider of insurance products for the over 50s age group

• RIAS negotiates with a panel of insurers to secure competitive, value for money products

• RIAS has over 970,000 customers and employs over 1,100 people across two locations - Bournemouth and Belfast

• In December 2007 RIAS won the ‘Personal Lines Broker of the year’ award at the Insurance Times awards

• RIAS was ranked 2nd in the 2008 Auto Express Driver Power Survey on motor insurance and was rated best for claims payout

• In August 2008 RIAS was awarded 2nd place by Which? magazine for home insurance customer satisfaction and rated best for settlement time on claims

• RIAS received a Commendation at the 2008 CCF European Call Centre awards in the ‘best people practice’ category

• RIAS was a finalist at the 2008 UK Broker Awards in the ‘Intermediary of the Year’ category

• RIAS is a finalist at the 2008 Insurance Times Awards in the ‘Personal Lines broker of the year’

RIAS is part of Fortis (Insurance UK), a leading provider of award-winning personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK and the 2007 British Insurance Awards 'General Insurer of the Year'. The insurer's successful customer-centric strategy has been founded on aligning its activities to how customers want to buy insurance, combined with delivering high quality products, manufactured at costs better than market norms.

Fortis's unique multi-distribution capability enables it to deliver products face-to-face, by phone (inbound and outbound), over the Internet and via SMS technology. Aligning its business activities with its partners' general insurance strategies enables Fortis to offer end-to-end white label capabilities in product development, marketing, campaign management, sales, fulfilment and claims - providing a seamless integration with partner brands.

Insuring in excess of 6.7 million customers and working with a range of partners, Fortis is recognised for delivering consistent and high-quality customer experiences. It employs 2,901 people as of 31/12/07 with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Haywards Heath, Redditch, and Stoke-on-Trent. In 2007, its profit before tax and interest (excluding impact of weather related events) was £92.2 million and its GWP was 757.8 million.

For further information please contact: Sadie Sheppard RIAS Public Relations 01202 254489 ssheppard@rias.co.uk

www.rias.co.uk