The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has published an ideas document resulting from an in-person protection workshop in April 2023.
The workshop involved a selection of mortgage intermediary firms including L&G, Royal London, the Protection Distributors Group (PDG) and the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF).
The document includes suggestions that may be of interest to mortgage and protection intermediaries, insurers and technology providers. It relates to AMI’s Five Point Plan, a call to action to try and transform the protection sector and propel the industry forward.
AMI senior policy adviser Stacy Penn comments: “The Five Point Plan was a key part of last year’s protection Viewpoint and, nearly eight months on, we wanted to provide a progress update to the wider industry. The ideas document released today is one area of this work and is designed to spark new ways of thinking and generate discussion within firms”.
L&G director of intermediary Julie Godley says: “Following the release of the Five Point Plan, we have continued to listen to our intermediary partners and coupled this with a willingness to take action to ensure we provide the best service, processes and solutions.
Specifically, our customer experience and optimisation teams have researched specific pain points and this is driving change. As a result, we have updated the functionality of our systems, made cancellation on behalf of a customer easier and streamlined reinstatement processes. We also appreciate that this is a continuous conversation and have a dedicated mailbox for advisers to send us their ideas and feedback”.
Royal London protection specialist Jennifer Gilchrist comments: “AMI’s Viewpoint report, The Great Protection Shift, is a great way of challenging the industry to continually seek ways to improve processes, adapt and showcase the industry in the best way possible”.
She continues: “The implementation of Consumer Duty will help to shift the dial by including protection as part of the holistic advice conversation – ultimately enhancing its profile. As part of that we’ll also see greater emphasis on often overlooked elements like writing policies in trust and the completion of beneficiary nomination forms, all of which will help increase confidence in the industry”.
