About Us

History

Key Insurance Group Ltd has changed dramatically since its early days in the 1930s as part of an Accountancy Practice but today it is still a small family run business.

Founded in a rural area meant that in those days most of our clients formed part of the Farming Community and so our base business was made up of  farms and small holdings with the associated Motor Insurances for Car,  Commercial Vehicle and Tractor Insurance.

After moving to high street shop premises in 1971 our client mix started to change and we developed a strong Personal Insurances sector that ran in parallel with Farm Insurance clients. Over the following years we also developed other Business Insurance clients

By 1982 our mix of business was 50% Personal and 50% Commercial Insurance.

Since we moved to our new, and wholly owned, premises in 1991 we have continued to build on our Commercial Insurance accounts with this today showing a bias, being 70% Commercial and 30% Personal Insurance.

Key Insurance Group Ltd are founder members of the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) and the Institute of Insurance Brokers (IIB). These trade associations help promote the role of Insurance Brokers with the public at large and ensure that our company is both fit and able to be approved as one of their members.

We are also part of the Westinsure Alliance who are dedicated to providing their members a clear market advantage in the placement of Personal and Commercial Insurance.

We also recognise the role of the Chartered Insurance Institute in helping to maintain professional standards within the financial services community and have chosen them to fulfil part of our ongoing needs for the development of our staff.

Milestones

1932      Oldest Agency UKPI
1968      John Davis Cliff took over from his father John Cliff [Accountant]
1971      Became JD Cliff & Co Ltd
1971      Moved to high street location [natwest bank chambers berry lane]
1971      Harold Lewis joined the Company.
1971      Obtained Burnley Building Society Agency
1974      Joined the Federation of Insurance Brokers
1977      Regulated by Insurance Brokers Registration Council
1977      Joined BIBA
1977      John Cliff served on IBRC disciplinary committee
1982      Clive Turner Joined
1983      Installed first Computerised systems
1984      Jeff Grundy joined
1986      Harold Lewis retired
1986      Migrated to Unix based Software systems
1987      Founder Members of Institute of Insurance Brokers
1988      Founder Shareholders of Policy Master Marking Ltd
1991      John Cliff died
1991      Purchased New Offices on Berry Lane
1993      Key Insurance Group Limited formed
1994      Founder Shareholder of Broker Direct Insurance PLC
1995      Key acquires J D Cliff & Co Ltd & Ravensdale Morecambe Ltd
1995      Highly Commended in Insurance Broker Awards for best use of EDI
1995      1 of 5 brokers nationally to join Norwich Union pilot scheme for net rating
1996      Key acquired Thompson Angood
1996      Barry Walters joined
1996      Obtained Manchester Building Society agency
2000      Norwich Union pilot ends
2002      Ravensdale Office in Morecambe closed
2003      Barry Walters died
2004      Migrated to Windows based Software systems
2005      Migrated to Windows Internet based Software systems
2006      Joins Sirius Focus Group for client/internet integration
2006      Joins iMarket
2007      Reorganised premises to allow for the Halifax Agency
2007      Key Insurance Group joins Westinsure Alliance
2007      Joins Sirius Financial Systems pilot for commercial Stargate portal
2008      Clive Turner works with Polaris on commercial electronic trading