Greg Stanworth, managing director of Greenacre, came up with the idea after having a conversation with his colleague Matt Butler.
He found Butler was able to communicate with the deaf and hard of hearing because he was fluent in British Sign Language (BSL).
Greenacre produced a video for the campaign which featured Butler who explained his role and what he could offer.
The firm hopes this campaign will be replicated by other advisory firms by training staff in BSL and encouraging advisers to actively promote themselves to the deaf community.
Stanworth (pictured) said he was proud the firm was able to offer advice to clients who were hard of hearing or deaf.
He said: “It’s great to be able to reach out to a wider audience and to help individuals feel more comfortable in what can be a challenging area. Having observed Matt, our specialist, communicate with a deaf client, it was wonderful to see how happy and relieved they were when discussing their mortgage needs with someone able to sign.
“We are extremely passionate about helping these underserved clients and would urge other firms to look at what they might do in this area.”
Sebastian Murphy, head of mortgage finance at JLM Mortgage Services, added: “Diversity and inclusion has taken on new meaning in the mortgage advice market, particularly over the course of the last few years, and it is wonderful to see Greenacre leading the way in terms of the advice services it can provide to hard of hearing and deaf people.
“I think we would all agree that we have potentially neglected the needs of these clients and we are fully behind Greenacre’s campaign to ensure more people receive the advice they are entitled to. We’ll be sharing this will all JLM AR firms and would hope it acts as a catalyst for other advisory firms to offer similar services.”
