Mortgage News
Response: Do advisers need greater protection guidance?
Dean Mason, practice principal at Masons Financial Planning, believes further guidelines would help, as long as they are not another regulatory straitjacket.
Would advisers sell more protection if further sales templates were created, like the critical illness guidelines drawn up by an industry-wide group lead by the ABI?
Dean Mason, practice principal at Masons Financial Planning
In principle, I believe these scripts are a good idea, so long as there is logical flexibility within them to tailor the wording to suit the individual client and the adviser’s style, with compromising advice.
It’s also vital that these are not used as a tool by the regulator for another bureaucratic straitjacket that is not in the client’s best interest.
Mortgage brokers have wildly varying levels of knowledge on protection, in my experience, and this often bears little relation to their experience in the mortgage industry generally.
What mortgage and protection advisers should take from the FCA’s AI stance
Sponsored by Sesame Bankhall Group
Two things we all know are that protection is the cornerstone of financial advice and in the current climate we all need to expand our learning and strengthen the proposition to a current or prospective client.
Having spent some time working at a protection only brokerage, I find discussing all forms of protection with a client comes naturally.
I know others who are finding it tough to adapt to more holistic advice. I believe if used correctly (subject to the caveat already mentioned) these scripts would certainly help many advisers and should increase sales.
Being able to fully explain critical illness cover, income protection, private medical insurance and even the pros and cons of different life cover elements, such as trusts, should help brokers retain at least some of the clients who may use them for the mortgage, but play the online lottery with protection. This can only be good news.
I do also believe that the wider media and public, whose opinion is what really counts here, should be made aware of these templates. It would show again that we are putting our house in order and can give the industry some much needed good PR.
Also answering in this week’s Market Watch are:
Ian Smart, head of product development and technical support at Bright Grey