Legal and General and One Family came in second and third place respectively in the ‘temperature check’ survey carried out by later life platform Air Club.
More than 200 advisers rated equity release providers for service covering the second half of 2021.
More2life was deemed the best for ‘ease of application’ while Legal and General won the vote for both ‘speed of pre-offer processing’ and ‘speed of post-offer processing’.
Canada Life came top for ‘communication’, and One Family were best for ‘online service’.
One Family were also the provider most advisers said they would recommend.
Canada Life were voted as the provider that most values the business of advisers and that ‘goes the extra mile’.
Aviva, Canada Life, Legal and General, LV=, Just, One Family, More 2 Life and Pure Retirement were reviewed as part of the survey.
Stuart Wilson, chief executive at Air Group (pictured), said: “There have been some notable changes in this iteration of the ‘temperature check’ but overall it seems clear a number of providers have upped their game across a number of key adviser-focused areas.
“Without wanting to necessarily single out individual providers, we must highlight Canada Life who achieved both the highest overall net promoter score and the highest service scores. This is a significant achievement and one that should be applauded.”
He added: “The last six months of 2021 was undoubtedly a very busy time for providers with a significant volume of both new and existing business. It’s clear from the scores and the comments received that some lenders struggled to deal with these challenges.
“Improvements need to be made as there is plenty of growth to come within the later life lending market which broke the £4bn barrier for the first time last year. This will only be achieved if lenders work with advisers to support customer demand so while some slack can be given for pandemic-related reasons, that can’t be an excuse going forward.”
