Help the Aged in finance venture

The grey pound is worth many millions

Help The Aged is to sell home insurance and other financial products to the "grey market" in a move pitting it against Saga and other specialists.

The charity is to set up a financial services arm, Intune, offering a range of insurance products.

The £5m venture with insurer Liverpool Victoria will aim to be profitable within three years, the charity said.

Any profits will be reinvested in the charity's core work of reducing poverty and tackling ageism.

'Huge market'

Help the Aged already provides a limited number of financial services, including mortgage equity release, but the new venture will be on a much larger scale.

It will be offering travel, home and motor insurance without any upper age limits.

We are going to be offering insurance products without upper age limits Anne Grahamslaw, Intune

The charity said it believed there was a gap in the market since existing providers did not always discriminate between the differing needs of those in their 50s and 60s compared to those in their 70s and 80s.

"Many companies are guilty of lumping the over 50s into one amorphous ¿grey' market and being inflexible or discriminatory with their products and services," said Anne Grahamslaw, Intune's managing director.

"The demographics of this county are changing and people are staying younger for longer, but not everyone appears to be recognising and responding to this growing trend."

Exploiting the "grey pound" has been highly successful for firms like Saga, whose products aimed at the over 50s range from insurance to holidays and radio stations.

But previous efforts by charities to tap into the financial services market have not always been successful.

Age Concern's Heyday venture made heavy losses after launching last year.