Reviti
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Reviti, Tobacco Tactics, updated 04 June 2024, accessed 14 September 2024.
Reviti was a life insurance company launched in April 2019 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Philip Morris International (PMI).1 Reviti ceased trading in 2022 and existing policies were transferred to Scottish Friendly insurance company.2
Background
The London-based company specialises in offering life insurance to smokers, with discounts for those who reduce or switch to PMI’s newer nicotine and tobacco products. Those who quit completely are given the largest discount. Those who switch to PMI’s iQOS product will receive a smaller discount. Those who switch to any competitor vaping product receive the smallest discount. The company says that it is working with Lloyds Pharmacy to help smokers quit and also has an app to encourage healthier lifestyles.3
The payment scheme has been criticised for acting as a mechanism to promote IQOS. A study published in July 2019 in Tobacco Control said:
“A closer look reveals that Reviti’s payment scheme contradicts scientific evidence on the health benefits of smoking cessation. Ex-smokers will pay the same amount for the year in which they quit as continued smokers, but smokers who switch to IQOS will obtain lower rates within 3 months. Thus, in the short term, smokers who switch to IQOS would pay less than smokers who quit”4
Reviti offers its services online with plans to expand worldwide as well as move into other lifestyle areas such as weight loss.5
According to documents filed at UK Companies House, Reviti was established in July 2018 with an initial capital of £5.2million. The worldwide trademarks for the company were registered in November 2018 (Figure 1).
The Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited is the underwriter of Reviti’s policies and its representative to the Financial Conduct Authority, which is the industry regulator, is Resolution Compliance Limited. An academic analysis described this arrangement as: “Reviti life appears to be a first-of-its-kind life insurance broker and promotional tool for IQOS.” 4 In July 2019 it was announced that Reviti had joined the trade association Insurtech UK, which itself was only established in June 2019. The organisation has more than 50 members and caters for start-ups, particular in the tech sector.6 Reviti Chief Executive Daniel Pender said: “It is great to be collaborating with other forward-thinking organisations keen to ensure that policymakers and regulators hear our voice and our sector thrives into the future.”7
People
The Chief Executive is Dan Pender who was appointed in December 2018.8 Pender previously worked at the financial companies Zurich and Prudential. He was co-founder of the Gryphon Group which offers financial services.9
The founding directors are Jacob Preisler and Mark Niehaus. Preisler, a Danish national living in Switzerland, joined PMI in 2004 and has held posts as general manager in Slovakia and China and is currently Vice President for Strategic Projects and Planning. 10 Niehaus, a German national also living in Switzerland, is a Vice President for Finance and Planning at PMI.11 He joined the firm in 1999, spending 11 years in Europe before a three-year spell at the Indonesian subsidiary HM Sampoerna, and moving to the Lausanne office in 2014.
In May 2019, Chris Ardron was appointed as product and services director, Andy Palfrey became director of risk and compliance and Stephanie Fuller joined as senior counsel.12
Links with the “Unsmoke” Campaign
In April 2019 PMI launched “UnSmoke” – a year-long marketing campaign to promote its newer nicotine and tobacco products. For more information see Philip Morris International.
The launch of Reviti appears to be part of that campaign. Dan Pender told ‘The Times’: “Philip Morris doesn’t want to sell cigarettes in the way it used to. It believes that cigarettes are bad for you. It is looking to diversify.”
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