The story
In March 1812, a number of prominent Scotsmen gathered in the Royal Exchange Coffee Rooms in Edinburgh. They were there to discuss setting up 'a general fund for securing provisions to widows, sisters and other female relatives' of fundholders so that they would not be plunged into poverty on the death of the fundholder during and after the Napoleonic Wars. Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society opened in 1815 as Scotland's first mutual life office.
Regulations made in 1811 showed its focus on providing annuities for dependants, but this quickly became only a small part of the company's business. They also set eligibility requirements; for example, those over fifty years old or those with a wife more than twenty years younger than himself could not apply.
Scottish Widows granted just 10 policies to female customers in the first four years, as applications from women were rare at the time. One example is Catherine Drummond in 1818, who as an unmarried woman requested annuity of £50 (£4,000 in 2025) once turning sixty years old.
In 1999, Lloyds TSB agreed to buy the society for £7 billion. The society demutualised on 3 March 2000 as part of the acquisition. Scottish Widows became part of Lloyds Banking Group in January 2009 and in November 2013, Lloyds Banking Group sold its asset management division, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) to Aberdeen Asset Management in a £660m deal.
In July 2021 Lloyds Banking Group announced its intention to acquire Embark Group, a fast-growing investment and retirement platform business. Following the deal, the Embark Platform was rebranded as the Scottish Widows Platform and the business announced significant investment plans to make improvements to payment functionality, charging capability and new investment solutions for financial advisers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Scottish Widows, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5