Ancient Order of Foresters

The Foresters Friendly Society is a British friendly society which was formed in 1834 as the Ancient Order of Foresters. As of 31 December 2015, the society had 78,108 members. Its head office is located in Southampton, England.

The society was formed in Rochdale in August 1834, when over 300 branches of the Royal Foresters society (established in the 18th century) formed the new Ancient Order of Foresters.

In 1874 the American and Canadian Foresters seceded from the Ancient Order of Foresters and set up the Independent Order of Foresters (IOF). The IOF's UK operation is now called Forester Life, based in Bromley, Greater London.

The society became incorporated on 1 January 2003 (in accordance with the provisions of The Friendly Societies Act 1992), that year acquired Tunstall Assurance Friendly Society, followed by the Leek Assurance Collecting Society in 2005. On September 26, 2014 it acquired the Post Office Insurance Society (POIS), which added 21,000 members and a further £69.0 million in assets

The society's local branches are termed "courts", rather than "lodges" as in other friendly societies. They were named after the law courts of the royal forests, and performed the Ancient Ritual of the Society. The most famous was Court LUD No. 10,100, which was formed in 1947, by members of the London District Management Committee. However, owing to lack of members willing to take office, this court was erased in 2004.

Since the society became incorporated the number of courts has slowly declined. As at June 2016, there are were 190 courts in the British Isles

The society had its own magazine - Foresters Miscellany, which ran from 1862 to 2008, when it was incorporated into a replacement called The Forester. In late 2016, the publication of Foresters Miscellany restarted with issue 1618

The society provides its members with insurance policies against sickness and death. There are also policies for children, including an ethical child savings plan, child tax exempt savings plan and ethical child trust fund. In addition to this, it is also the provider of group insurance to several police forces in the United Kingdom, the Police Service of Northern Ireland being one of the largest, and its Guernsey business mainly consists of medical insurance.

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