The online forum will allow advisers to contact the support team directly for help on lending criteria, support for difficult cases such as complex buy-to-let and mortgages for sub-contractors, and information on other services which the club provides.
To better aid advisers with their lender relations and mortgage business, the chat service also creates transcripts of the conversations.
Currently, Legal & General is the only mortgage club to offer this service, but its existing telephone support will still be available to the 9,000 plus advisers who use L&G’s support services annually.
Jeremy Duncombe, director of Legal & General Mortgage Club, said that the “launch of [the] new online chat facility provides a new layer of support to help brokers navigate complex cases or get the latest on lender propositions.”
The support services are free to use for all club members, and the club takes a small fee from the lender and the broker for the cases they place.
“As a unique, free service in the market, Mortgage Club Support Services is there to assist Legal & General’s intermediary partners with all aspects of their mortgage businesses.”
Duncombe also stressed that advisers shouldn’t be concerned by such technology-driven changes: “Far from being a threat to advisers, technology like this can provide brokers with access to a wealth of information and guidance, helping them to keep informed about the latest changes in the market.”
Ray Boulger, senior mortgage technical manager at John Charcol, agreed: “For any provider such as L&G, enhancing the ways in which their brokers can communicate is a good idea. The mere fact that you have more options to communicate means it’ll be more appealing to more people. Some brokers would still prefer the phone, but one of the benefits of a live chat feature is that you can keep a record. I’m sure this will be an added attraction to a lot of brokers.”
