The insurer has now announced a new deal with the American Association of Retired Persons.
Petplan and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) have been in negotiations for “many years” but the pet insurance company and organization with 38 million+ members has now come to their “first exclusive” multi-year marketing deal.
The pet health insurance company revealed that its strategy together will go into effect in October.
According to Chris Ashton, a co-founder of the pet insurance company (the other being his wife Natasha Ashton), being able to communicate with the AARP’s “massive membership will transform awareness for pet insurance and Petplan.” While he did say that AARP will be bringing in royalties with the growth of the business, he did not divulge exactly how large those royalties will be.
At the moment, the pet insurance provider has more than 130 employees at its company headquarters.
The staff that works for the pet health insurance company are actually encourage to bring their dogs, cats, and other animals to work with them, provided that they are well trained. The policies marketed by the company are written by Allianz, the large global insurer. This makes it stand out from its primary rival, Trupanion, which underwrites its own policies through its American Pet Insurance Company. That insurer just went public in July, starting at $10 per share and now trading at in the $8.50 range.
Petplan and its founders are hoping to be able to increase the size of this sector of the insurance market. At the moment, the insurer protects less than 2 percent of American pets have a policy covering their health costs, which means that there are less than 2 million policies across the country. Comparatively, in some European countries, as well as in the United Kingdom, that figure is closer to 25 percent.
The pet insurance company is backed by investors, such as Vernon Hill, the founder of Commerce Bank. Hill also allows dogs to visit his companies. The founders of Petplan use the business titles of “Left Paw” for Chris Ashton, as well as “Right Paw” for Natasha Ashton. Also joining them at work are Montgomery, their English toy spaniel, and Wellington, their Cavalier.