FRIENDSHIPS, FINANCE AND THE FUTURE

THE RISE OF SINGLEDOM IN THE UK

‘I don’t think, as a single person, you can survive without your friends,’

- Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women

A report by:

June 2012On a mission to save you money

The future of our social, romantic and family relationships will inevitably shape the way that insurers set out to financially protect us. Life insurance is a way of protecting the futures of those we are closest to, to help them carry on with their lives when we are not around. Traditionally this type of protection may be associated with elderly couples or with nuclear families, but as we will discover in this report, UK men and women are getting married later in life and turning their thoughts to the importance of their friendships instead. At Confused.com we have been working with The Future Laboratory to explore the extent to which single people rely on their friends and how much of an appetite these people may have for financial products designed specifically for them and their friends. Our study of single people in the UK reveals that more and more young singles, especially men, are shunning marriage plans and are prepared to buy a home together with a trusted friend instead. As such, unless the insurance industry

provides suitable products for this new market, there may be a whole generation of homeowners who are unprotected against losing the person they share their life and home with. Current life insurance products do exist but they are not geared towards this market and may not be appropriate to cope with future trends. This report has highlighted how much single people rely on their mates, both financially and emotionally, and that, if something were to happen to one of their friends, they could be completely unprotected. As state support retreats, the importance of life insurance has never been clearer. The need for us all to prepare for the worst, and protect our loved ones, is paramount. There is an opportunity for life insurance companies to reflect the rich diversity of our society and meet the needs of more people by making available products and services which reflect the value that people put on personal relationships outside of traditional family and marriage ties.

Foreword by Mike HobanChief Marketing Officer at Confused.com

Methodology

2,000 single UK adults were interviewed. Fieldwork was conducted 20–24 April 2012, the research was carried out online by Future Poll for Confused.com. Unless otherwise stated this is the source of all statistics quoted in this report.

Desk research and phone interviews were also carried out by Future Poll for Confused.com, during May 2012.

The research falls into two sections:

Part One Mate-rimony and FLAPers: The anatomy of modern singledom Part Two ‘MOSHing’: Redefining home ownership for single buyers

Meet the Experts

Emily Barr, bestselling author and travel journalist Emily was recently featured in Stylist magazine on the importance of female friendship: ‘Wherever I have been in life, whatever I have done, I have always relied on female friends for camaraderie and understanding.’

In this report we will hear from the following experts:

Mike Hoban, Chief Marketing Officer, Confused.com

& Matt Lloyd, Head of Life Insurance, Confused.com

Mike has worked in the financial services industry since 2003. He leads the marketing department at Confused.com.

Matt is the resident life insurance expert at Confused.com, one of the UK’s most popular price comparison websites, where online shoppers compare life insurance, car insurance, home insurance and other utilities for the home.

Jody Day, founder, Gateway Women: supporting, inspiring and empowering childless women Gateway Women sets out to challenge the ideas around identity and motherhood that are often at the heart of much unhappiness when the ‘baby story’ doesn’t work out, and to help women find their child-free mojo.

Chris Sanderson, co-founder, The Future Laboratory Chris recently presented a Channel 4 series, Home of the Future, and is a respected commentator on new behaviour and attitudes.

Part One:Mate-rimony and FLAPers:

Exploring the Anatomy of Modern Singledom

SummaryThe trend for single people to ‘mate for life’ with their friends could significantly influence the future of insurance. This study reveals that just 40%1 of singles who have never been married think they will get married in the future and 43% of singles say the law should recognise friendship as being just as important as marriage. Single adults stick with their friends through thick and thin, and they want the government to take this just as seriously as they do. This new phenomenon of ‘mate-trimony’ is set to shape the future of the family and could affect the way in which financial products are structured and who should be buying them. The proportion of women who have never married has increased from 18% in 1979 to 45% in 20102 and experts at Confused.com have discovered that the importance of friendship is growing too, as single people set up home and find modern alternatives to marriage.

This report also introduces FLAPers (Financially Liberated And Positively Single), a new breed of single people who are turning the tables on the stereotype of the sad singleton and embracing the adventure, spontaneity and freedom of single life. Like the flappers of the 20s, these FLAPers are celebrating a new era of positivity and empowerment in the wake of troubled times. Insurance companies need to cater fairly to this new breed of single, to stand a chance of having a relevant product offer for the future. In the future, we could see friendships among single people recognised as relationships that work, while marriage increasingly fails. Laws will protect mate-trimony in the same way as matrimony and friendships could be celebrated with ‘frenniversaries’ and ‘frennymoons’. Relationship status on passports and census forms could include mate-trimony as an option, next of kin will automatically be friends, and more and more singles will protect their most important relationships – their friendships – with life insurance.

12,000 single UK adults were interviewed for this report. Fieldwork was conducted 20-24 April 2012, and the research was carried out online by Future Poll for Confused.com. Unless otherwise stated all figures are from this source. 2Source: General Lifestyle Survey Overview Report 2010, Office for National Statistics, 8 March 2012

Meet the Experts

Mate-trimony – commitment to one’s mates – is just as important as marriage to UK singles. They are re-evaluating friendship and devoting themselves to long-term relationships with their mates.

From Matrimony to Mate-trimony: Mates matter more

Research conducted by Future Poll for Confused.com reveals:

To better anticipate the changing needs of consumers in the future, insurance companies should recognise and protect these relationships, as they do marriage.

Singles stick with their friends through thick and thin, and they want the government to take mate-trimony just as seriously as they do. Some 43% of singles say that the law should recognise friendship as being just as important as marriage. ‘Friendship should be celebrated. It’s just as important – and possibly more important – than romantic relationships, because your friends are the constant throughout your life,’

says Emily Barr, bestselling author. Singles are putting mates first and love second, redefining a relationship that has long been taken for granted. They ‘mate’ for life. Almost three-quarters of singles say they have friends who will be friends for life, and four in five say that friendships last longer than romantic relationships.

‘One of the big shifts that we have observed over the past decade is that, as the financial imperative to get married has decreased, and as the stigma of being alone is being reduced, there isn’t a dramatic change in the value of friendship – there’s a re-evaluation of the importance of something that has always been there,’ says Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory.

‘I don’t think, as a single person, you can survive without your friends,’ says Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women

Singles even trust their friends, rather than family members, with their online secrets. Twice as many singles would rather have a friend see what they’ve been looking at online than a family member. Singles aged between 18 and 24 would much rather that friends see their web-browsing history (62%) than family members (18%), perhaps because their friends would be less shocked. Singles are realising how much they rely on their mates and that, if something were to happen to one of their friends, they could be completely unprotected. Increasingly, singles look to protect themselves against these risks and many contemplate insuring the lives of their friends. Almost six in 10 (59%) singles would consider insuring the life of a friend if they bought a house together.

‘Friends taking out life insurance on each other is logical. It’s a natural extension of that element of group preservation, to protect the needs of the collective,’ observes Sanderson. As mate-trimony becomes mainstream, many singles are also demanding that friendship be recognised by law in the same way as matrimony. This would mean that, no matter whose name was on a tenancy agreement, all friends would have the right to live in a shared home. Friends would be next of kin, recognised above relatives for hospital visits and in emergencies. Friends would have a legal duty to support each other and, in the event of a friend’s death, the other would automatically receive all of their personal items.

Insurers need to start thinking about this now! ‘It’s time for the insurance industry to recognise how much we value our friendships and show us how we can protect them’

says Sanderson.

Confused.com’s Head of Life Insurance, Matt Lloyd, agrees:

‘In the future we may see new products created, tailored to meet the needs of friends or groups of friends who wish to protect jointly-owned assets and pooled incomes.’

In the future, we could see friendships recognised as relationships that work, as marriage increasingly fails. Laws will protect mate-trimony in the same way as matrimony and friendships will be celebrated with ‘frenniversaries’ and ‘frennymoons’. Relationship status on passports and census forms could include mate-trimony as an option, next of kin will automatically be friends, and more and more singles will protect their most important relationships – their friendships – with life insurance. ‘As long as an insurable interest can be documented, life insurance and critical illness insurance policies can be taken out to cover the lives of financially dependent friends, protecting against death and potentially lifestyle threatening illnesses,’ says Lloyd.

‘However, if a single person has no financial dependents (whether family members, children or financially dependent friends), life insurance may not be appropriate and perhaps another type of cover called Income Protection should be considered more strongly, which is designed to replace a lost income should the policyholder become unable to work through long-term sickness or disability.’ ‘This type of cover can help the individual maintain their lifestyle, providing an income to pay all the regular bills such as mortgage or rent, utility bills and other insurances. Many people hold the often wrong view that the state will help them pay for these things if they cannot, however state benefits usually only pay out a fraction of what is needed and are designed to keep people just above the poverty line and no more.’

Introducing FLAPers (Financially Liberated And Positively Single)

What UK singles tell us:

FLAPers are a new type of singleton. They are turning the tables on the stereotype of the sad singleton, embracing the adventure, spontaneity and freedom of single life.

Like the flappers of the 20s, the FLAPers of 2012 are celebrating a new era of positivity and empowerment in the wake of troubled times. Insurance companies need to cater fairly to this new breed of single, to stand a chance of having a relevant product offer for the future.

Far from being ‘left on the shelf’, FLAPers are socialising and having fun. They are three times more likely to say that singles are more sociable than married couples. They are open-minded and adventurous. Over half (54%) say that singles make more effort to try new things. Marriage is not the priority for FLAPers. Just 40% of never-married singles think they will get married in the future, and 35% think marriage lacks the value it once had. When it comes to single men, just three in 10 think they will ever get married. To many single people, marriage is viewed as an old-fashioned idea.

21% of single men think marriage is outdated while 34% of single women think marriage lacks the value it once had. Men are increasingly saying no to marriage. Just three in 10 single men think they will ever get married, and 48% think single people are more fun. ‘As a society, we’ve evolved,’

says Sanderson.

‘Previously, having children was seen as the most important thing you did in your life. As society evolves, more and more people begin to understand that their primary function may not be to procreate. If procreation isn’t your primary goal then what’s the function of marriage?’

‘We’ve almost got over the misinterpretation of what the terms ‘bachelor’ and ‘spinster’ mean. The associations of being left on the shelf are being dumped, as a new generation of FLAPers chooses to be happily single,’ says Chris Sanderson, co-founder of the Future Laboratory.

‘Bridget Jones was always a bit of a stereotype. I’m not sure it was ever massively grounded in reality, I don’t think that anyone thinks being single is sad and failing. I respect and, if anything, am slightly envious of, single people.’ says Emily Barr, bestselling author.

As FLAPers lead unpredictable, exciting lives, the need for insurance can be greater than for married couples. Their taste for adventure means that their lives are not set in stone, and insurance can help FLAPers who have entered into financial agreements to protect themselves if the worst happens. FLAPers are challenging the status quo, calling for society to give them the respect and recognition they deserve. They refuse to be ignored. 69% of singles who aren’t in a serious relationship say that married people shouldn’t get a better deal in society than singles.

‘The government could do a lot more for single-occupancy households and childless people,’

says Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women. ‘Childless people pay tax towards everyone else’s children’s education and healthcare, but sometimes we’re seen as a drain on society because we’re not having children.’ ‘At hotels, you have to pay single supplements for occupying a room that they could have had two people staying in,’

says Day.

‘Being a couple is much more affordable.’

ConclusionWe are seeing the rise of FLAPers as a lifestyle choice. No longer seen as ‘left on the shelf’, singles are challenging the status quo of the nuclear family. They are making a conscious decision not to get married, and to explore all that life has to offer. With active social lives, an appetite for adventure and the freedom to follow their dreams, being a FLAPer is becoming something that people aspire to, and the powers that be will have no choice but to sit up and take notice.

Friendships often outlast romantic relationships and the concept of ‘mate-rimony’, commitment to one’s mates, is likely to become mainstream in the near future. Many stereotypes of singledom are outdated and forward-thinking companies cannot afford to ignore the single market any longer.

Additional Research29% of the 26.3m households in the UK consist of just one person. Source: Families and Households, 2001 to 2011, Office for National Statistics, 19 January 2012 ‘Rituals and ceremonies are important events in the lives of individuals, partners and families. A multiple-partner family can have one, so can a group of friends or a single person.’ http://www.unmarried.org/commitment-ceremonies.html 28% of men and 22% of women in the UK are single (not married or co-habiting) Source: General Lifestyle Survey, Office for National Statistics, 2010, 8 March 2012. ‘New media and communications technology mean that people can be home alone, but engage with communities, share ideas and even meet new people,’ says Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology and author of the book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone Source: Singles Rising, LS:N Global, 22 February 2012.

The proportion of women who have never married has increased from 18% in 1979 to 45% in 2010. Source: General Lifestyle Survey Overview Report 2010, Office for National Statistics, 8 March 2012. ‘From NoMos (Not Mothers) to Panks (professional aunties no kids), all the way through to Gateway Women (women who are childless by circumstance), these acronyms and epithets proliferate across web groups and self-help book covers. Finally, childless – or in the new, neutral lexicon, ‘child-free’ – women are becoming a cultural force.’ Source: Kids: who needs them?, Sunday Times, 7 May 2012, http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/living/Emotions/article1028485.ece

Part Two:MOSHing: How Singles are Redefining the

Traditional Household Structure

SummaryOur second and final part of this report explores the relationship between the rise of singledom and homebuying. If, as described in part one, we love our mates enough to have our friendships defined by law and a new and growing breed of independent single people is rising in the UK, then where are these people all going to live? When it comes to housing, the concept of MOSHing (Multiple Occupant Shared Home) is not new in itself, yet as we look ahead to the future we can see MOSHing is redefining the traditional household structure, and the insurance needs of friends investing together.

Social networking is accelerating friendship. Young people are getting to know their friends faster, connecting to more people and sharing things in a way that would be impossible in their busy offline lives.

As MOSHing becomes the lifestyle of choice for men and the younger generation of singles, it will be vital to protect friendships. MOSHers will take out life insurance on their fellow MOSHers to make sure that they are covered in the case of death. MOSHing will redefine the structure, roles and responsibilities of the mainstream household. Increasingly, MOSHers will call for insurance companies to recognise this new way of living and offer life insurance that ensures that it can continue if one member of a household is injured or dies.

The property crisis is giving rise to the MOSH (Multiple Occupant Shared Home), as single people club together to buy property. While not new in itself, as we look ahead to the future we can see MOSHing is redefining the traditional household structure, and the insurance needs of friends investing together.

‘Friendships have always to a certain degree provided an amount of financial support but that trend has certainly been increasing over recent years, with more and more people taking out “mates mortgages” to try and circumvent the current strict lending criteria,’

says Matt Lloyd, Head of Life Insurance at Confused.com.

Research reveals:

Findings‘This coupled with lower overall marriage rates and higher average marriage ages for many means owning a home with a friend is a commonly considered option – and this is likely to become even more prevalent with time.’

Single people are reacting to the recession by finding new ways to get onto the property ladder. They refuse to carry on pouring money down the drain by renting, looking for a home to call their own. Around 59% of singles say that owning a home would greatly improve their quality of life, and 65% worry that they will never be able to purchase a property.

‘Potentially, this will be one of the single biggest threats to the supposed continued growth of the single-person household phenomenon. This will be caused by two things: one will be the change in the cost of living, which will make it more difficult to enjoy the advantages of a single-person household, and the second will be the desire of more and more young people to live as a group,’says Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory.

Men are MOSHing more than women. Twice as many single men (10%) have bought a house with a friend than single women (5%). Some 44% of men would be comfortable owning a property with a friend, compared with 38% of women.

‘The cost of living for a single person is really tough. Trying to live on your own and pay utilities and rent means that often the single, glamorous lifestyle is not possible, as you don’t have a bean left over,’ says Jody Day, founder, Gateway Women.

Young people are native MOSHers. More than six in 10 (64%) single 18 to 24-year-olds have friends they trust enough to buy a house with, compared with around half

(47%) of those over 55. They also have more friends they would trust enough to buy a house with: 18–24-year-old singles have 36%, while those over 55 have 21%. This shift in behaviour among young people will mean MOSHing becomes mainstream over the next decade, changing the traditional household structure. ‘Thinking about new urban households, MOSHers could start to have one person who is a breadwinner and one person who is taking a lesser role in terms of making money, but is staying at home to look after the collective house. A group of single people still need to live in a clean and tidy house. All need their shopping and washing done, so you could have someone in the household with this responsibility,’

says Sanderson.

‘The continued growth of social networking has had a marked effect on the way young people view notions of community. What started out as an understanding of community through social networks that were intangible is now one that is taking root and being created with bricks and mortar,’ he adds. Social networking is accelerating friendship. Young people are getting to know their friends faster, connecting to more people and sharing things in a way that would be impossible in their busy offline lives. Their constant connection to their friends online means that they increasingly want to make these online communities concrete.

‘You leapfrog the first six months of knowing someone just by being friends with them online,’ says Emily Barr, bestselling author.

As MOSHing becomes the lifestyle of choice for men and the younger generation of singles, it will be vital to protect friendships. MOSHers will take out life insurance on their fellow MOSHers to make sure that they are covered in the case of death.

MOSHing will redefine the structure, roles and responsibilities of the mainstream household. Increasingly, MOSHers will call for life insurance companies to recognise this new way of living and offer life insurance policies specifically aimed at groups of co-owning friends. Matt Lloyd, Head of Life Insurance at Confused.com comments: ‘By not putting in place life and critical illness insurances, financially dependent friends run the risk of losing jointly-owned homes or even rented accommodation – which as well as potentially ruining a jointly-enjoyed lifestyle could also ruin a beautiful friendship!’

ConclusionLiving in shared-occupancy households is not just about saving money, it’s about friendship and turning social networks into bricks and mortar. As we learned in part one of this report, single people in the UK are not ‘waiting’ for marriage - they are enjoying long-lasting friendships and independence and this will inevitably impact on housing and living arrangements too. We are already seeing a rise in the number of ‘mates mortgages’ and young people who are single are increasingly open to the idea of buying property with a trusted friend. Insurance companies and other financial services providers should prepare for an influx of friendship-driven transactions and if they do not offer suitable products they could be missing out.

Mike Hoban, Chief Marketing Officer at Confused.com says: ‘Insurance companies are increasingly using social media to communicate with young audiences and the next stage is to recognise, and respond to, the real-life social networks which are structuring the new ‘urban families’ as friends set up home together, supporting one another both financially and emotionally.’ ‘As this report demonstrates, friendships are increasingly important to independent single people in the UK, and a financial industry that caters for to single people and couples alike is one that is prepared for the future of personal finance.’

Additional ResearchThe largest percentage increase in numbers marrying from 2009 to 2010 were men aged 45 to 49 and women aged 30 to 34, both of which rose by 6%. Source: Marriages in England and Wales, 2010, Office for National Statistics, 29 February 2012. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of new fathers were aged 30 and over in 2010. Source: Live births in England and Wales by characteristics of mother 2010, Office for National Statistics, 20 October 2011. Single-person households are projected to increase by 163,000 per year – from 6.8m in 2006 to 10.9m in 2031 – and singleton households could outnumber any other kind of household by 2031, according to the Government Office for Science. Source: Singleton Settlements: The Increase in Single Households, The Sigma Scan 2.0, 18 May 2011 http://www.sigmascan.org/Live/Issue/ViewIssue/78

Please contact the PR team at Confused.com if you are a member of the media with questions about this report: prteam@confused.comwww.confused.com