It was founded in 1826 and became the sixth largest mutual life assurance institution in the UK with 1.9 million policy holders in the mid-1990s before being acquired.

After Scottish Amicable announced a plan to demutualise the company in early 1997, a bidding war, which also involved Abbey National and AMP Limited, took place.

It was regarded as a major transaction at the time and the Wall Street Journal said, that with this deal, "Mergermania Has Hit European Companies".

In 1823, James Duncan, a Glasgow accountant, founded the West of Scotland Fire Insurance Company.

At the first annual general meeting Duncan proposed the formation of a life office to operate in tandem with the fire company.

[9] One of the innovations which was to prove of great significance to Scottish Amicable had its beginnings just before the Second World War when a Group life and pensions department was started in London.

[4] The company closed its head office at St Vincent Street in Glasgow and consolidated its operations at Craigforth, near Stirling, in 1996.

[10] In January 1997, Scottish Amicable announced a plan to demutualise with the intention of listing on the London Stock Exchange within a further three to six years.

[14] After AMP Limited also lodged a formal bid, which was rejected, Prudential Assurance succeeded with an offer of £2.8 billion.

The newspaper said, in the context of the UK Government policy, the deal meant that "consolidation of the British life insurance industry [was] accelerating".

[17] At an Extraordinary General Meeting on 26 June 1997, members approved the transfer of the business to Prudential Assurance with effect from 30 September 1997.

[31][32] It went on to sponsor a prize, the Scottish Amicable Award, at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in the 1990s.