Friendly Society

Friendly societies are registered under the Friendly Societies Acts 1896-1977. They are established for various purposes, mostly to provide small life assurance benefits, sick benefits and death benefits to members, to provide benefits to non-members or to promote particular activities or interests.

Registration of a Friendly Society

In order to register a friendly society, the grouping involved, which must consist of at least seven people, must draw up a set of rules governing the operation of the society. A society may be registered as a friendly society, benevolent society, a working-men's club or a specially authorised society. The rules must, according to the class in which the society is to be registered, as a minimum contain the matters required to be provided for by the First Schedule of the Friendly Societies Act 1896. The rules, together with the prescribed application form and fee are submitted to the Registrar for examination and, once the rules are found to be in accordance with statute, the society is registered.

Friendly Societies Act 1896 (0.26 MB, Adobe PDF)