Happy birthday to us – with the emphasis on happy

It used to be said by insurance salesmen of the old school, that the way to sell life assurance was to ‘scare ‘em to death’

So if the salesman was talking to a couple, he’d start talking to the woman. Often the man would interject fairly quickly. The salesman would say to the woman, “No, imagine that he’s dead”. The man would often just keep going. At this point the salesman would get out a small coffin and say, “No, you’re in there!”

Now, unless you have been living on the other side of the solar system for the last five years, you would not have failed to absorb the potent commercial messages given out by financial services companies of all flavours.

And, call me a cynic, but most of the messages still sometimes seem to have the undertone of veiled threat.

You know the sort of thing. If you don’t insure with us, burglars will steal everything in your home and it will burn to the ground in a freak chip-pan accident.

You’ll definitely break your leg when you go ski-ing, so you’d better get some of this insurance; invest with us or you’ll die poor and miserable and your children will hate you forever, and so on.

We are proud to say on this, our fifth birthday, that we’re happy to make you happy.

The Family Building Society was born to address a problem that society finds increasingly difficult and that is causing troubles the country over, and, that many would argue has reached crisis point.

This is the problem of the younger generation being unable to attain the dream of owning their own home. Decades of explosive house price rises, financial crises, tighter regulations, lack of creativity among lenders and wage stolidity have meant the under 35s are having to stretch harder than ever before to attain their goal.

Additionally, we are happy to offer a solution to lending in later life. Why can’t you get a mortgage if you’re 60? Well, five years ago you would have struggled. Now you won’t – because we offer it.

With our innovative Family Mortgage products, we have helped scores of families to efficiently deploy the equity in their homes or use their savings to help the younger generation get on the property ladder.

We have worked with the London School of Economics to tease out difficult data so that we can continuously keep an eye on economic trends affecting our borrowers, both current and future and be there as a pillar of support for the increasingly put-upon Bank of Mum and Dad.

It’s a tough world out there, no one needs telling that, but it’s the Family Building Society’s mission to make it just a little bit easier when it comes to making big decisions about your family finances.

And we intend to go on into the future with exactly the same positive and happy message.

So while we are delighted to say happy birthday to us; it is, actually, a happy birthday to you too.

Written by Steve McDowell

The content of this blog is Steve McDowell’s personal opinion and comment, and views expressed here are his and unless specifically stated, are not those of Family Building Society. The content on this page is not intended to be advice in any circumstances.