The Hartford Life Limited

The Hartford, a leading US insurance and investment bond player, sought to break into the European retirement savings market. Think London helped establish its UK subsidiary at Canary Wharf and advised on numerous market entry challenges.

The company

Leading US insurance and investment bond player The Hartford — which once had Abraham Lincoln and Babe Ruth on its books — sought to break into the European retirement savings market. Think London helped establish its UK subsidiary, Hartford Life Limited, at Canary Wharf , east London and advised on numerous market entry challenges.  The Hartford Financial Services Group is one of the US’s largest investment and insurance companies, selling products including annuities, mutual funds, college savings plans, life insurance, group and employee benefits, automobile and homeowners' insurance and business insurance. Founded in 1810, it employs nearly 30,000 people in offices in the US, Japan, Brazil, Ireland and now, thanks to Think London, the UK.

Think London helped with:

• finding suitable offices in Canary Wharf, east London, after exploring options in the City of London and Croydon in south London. Canary Wharf’s good transport links via City Airport proved key to choosing this location.
• advising on critical ‘new market’ challenges, right down to language differences

Market factors

• Europe is one of the world’s three top regions for retirement savings and the UK market is the continent’s biggest
• London is Europe’s largest investment banking centre and the UK’s financial sector hub
• the UK’s reputation for stability and business-friendly regulation
• proximity to the Financial Services Authority (the official body that regulates the UK’s financial services industry, based in London)

In their own words

“We are bringing our model over to the UK because the retirement savings market is dominated by three regions — the US, Japan and Europe. These regions control about 87 per cent of the world’s retirement assets. Within Europe, the UK is the largest, so it was natural that we would go in and focus on that market.

Our office in Japan is located in Tokyo for the same reasons that we chose London. Because we don’t sell our products directly and are dependent on financial institutions and independent financial advisors to sell our products, the majority of constituents we need to work with are in London, so the location makes a lot of sense for us. We also work very closely with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and that’s right here in London as well.”
Lance DeSpain, Chief of Staff, The Hartford’s international operations.
 
“London leads the way for financial services in Europe, if not the world, so it was imperative that The Hartford establish operations there. The city offers us fantastic commercial opportunities, good transport to Europe and the rest of the world, and a pool of talent from which we can build a solid, thriving business.”

Lincoln Collins
CEO of The Hartford’s European operations
 
“I must say they did a terrific job in helping a large corporation become established in the UK. The team was instrumental in assisting The Hartford in our planning, site selection, coordination of meetings with city planners and area businesses throughout London.

They listened, pointed us in the direction we needed to go, and were available every step along the way. The Think London team assisted us by familiarising our project team members and management team with the many challenges and difficulties a company like The Hartford may face, entering a new market and new country (including the language differences!).

As the project manager for the move to London I am certain we couldn’t have done what we did, in the timeframe that we did it in, without the expertise of the team at Think London.”

John Enos
Marketing Director, The Hartford

For more information about The Hartford, please visit www.thehartford.co.uk

Listen to what The Hartford's Marketing Director, John Enos, has to say about working with Think London.(wmv: 10MB)