Our Story

Guardian Group’s history dates back to 1847 when Standard Life of Edinburgh, Scotland, opened a branch office in Trinidad. Standard Life ceased operating and merged its Trinidad and Tobago portfolio with that of Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance Society, effective November 15, 1972. Towards the end of the 1970s, it became mandatory for all insurance companies to localise their operations. And so it was that Guardian Life of the Caribbean was created to accept the Trinidad and Tobago portfolio of Jamaica Mutual in December 1980. It was incorporated in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on December 30, 1980 and registered under the provisions of the Insurance Act, 1980.

The acquisition of a majority shareholding in Crown Life (Caribbean) Limited in 1990 was followed by the merger of its operations with those of Guardian Life of the Caribbean Limited in January 1993. This created relationships which led to the addition, also in 1993, of new cultural elements to the mix and gave Guardian its first entrée into the Dutch Caribbean – Curacao and Aruba. Guardian Holdings, which became a publicly listed company in 1982 in Trinidad and Tobago and 1986 in Jamaica, established Guardian Life Limited in Jamaica, in July 1999, following its acquisition of the individual life and pension portfolios of Jamaica Mutual, Crown Eagle, Dyoll Life and Horizon Life. In 2000, GHL acquired West Indies Alliance Insurance Company Limited in Jamaica and in 2001, following Guardian Holdings’ acquisition of The Caribbean Home Insurance Co. Limited the Trinidad & Tobago operations of these companies were merged and the business was re-branded as “Guardian General Insurance Limited.” This merger was followed by the legal amalgamation of NEMWIL with Guardian General Limited in December, 2007.

In 2003, GHL added Guardian Asset Management, an institutional asset management and mutual fund arm and it further cemented its roots in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean with its acquisition of Fatum Holding N.V., owner of the “Fatum” Group in the Netherlands Antilles. In 2012, Guardian Holdings Limited announced the acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of Globe Insurance Company of Jamaica Limited (Globe) which was later merged with West Indies Alliance Insurance Company Limited to form Guardian General Insurance Jamaica Limited. The growth of the GHL group of companies continued in 2013 with the successful acquisition of the issued share capital of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (Antilles) N.V. from the RSA Group and Maduro & Curiel’s Bank by Fatum General Insurance N.V. (Fatum) a subsidiary of Fatum Holding N.V.. GHL has earned its reputation among the leading financial institutions in the Caribbean and its subsidiaries Guardian Life of the Caribbean and Guardian General Insurance Company are both rated “A- Excellent” by top rating agency A.M. Best. In 2013, GHL and all its subsidiaries rebranded to Guardian Group, a single brand and identity to represent the largest indigenous financial services and insurance group in the Caribbean.

While the companies within the group remain separate legal entities, they all carry a single brand name, logo and tagline, solidifying Guardian Group as the single largest brand in the insurance and financial services sector in the English and Dutch Caribbean with a rich legacy of over 170 years. In May 2019, Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) and NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG) and its wholly owned subsidiary, NCB Global Holdings Limited (NCBGH), started a new chapter with the successful completion of the acquisition of 74,230,750 shares in GHL. The acquisition, one of the largest of its kind within the region, resulted in NCB holding more than 62% of the shares of GHL. This ground-breaking move was fully aligned to GHL’s growth strategy, representing another significant step in expanding our reach regionally and internationally.