Our Director of Protection, Mike Allison recently sat down with Ian Sawyer, Commercial Director at Assured Futures, our trusted signposting partner to find out more about their business, how this can fit into a firm’s existing processes, as well as how important this is in meeting Consumer Duty requirements Ian, can you start by telling us a little bit about Assured Futures? Well, Assured Futures is the UK’s first and longest established protection only broker, established over 25 years ago in 1995. We have 130 staff, based in Cheltenham and specialise in all types of protection including Life insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Mortgage Payment Protection (ASU) and IHT Planning. We like to think that we are at least one of the best in the business, and this is backed up by having a Trustpilot 4.9 score from our clients and being recommended by Martin Lewis, the money saving expert. What does the phrase signposting mean to you? It's about getting your client in front of the best, available person, to help your client get protected. We all know that these days, most advisers specialise in a product or service, Mortgages or Wealth or Pensions rather than be a generalist one-stop shop. With all the compliance, lengthy underwriting requirements and ever-expanding illness definitions, it’s no wonder there's little time for a mortgage or wealth adviser to focus 12 SUMMER PROTECTION NEWSLETTER on the basics of protection, let alone finding the time to explore their needs for Unemployment cover and private medical insurance – both of which there is huge demand for currently. How has Consumer Duty changed things for the consumer? Big time! Although too many advisers have not woken up to this fact yet, I'm sure come July, it will dawn on them. In short, you now MUST ensure you advise and protect your clients from foreseeable harm. How can you arrange a mortgage (a client’s largest financial commitment), and not 'foresee' that they could suffer an accident, serious illness or redundancy and home insurance? Every mortgage should have protection around it; that is the expectation of the FCA. Is signposting easy? Dead easy! Simply, fill out a simple form online here and we'll take care of the rest. Of course, you don't have to refer to us, you could form a relationship with someone local to you. The advantage of a business like ours is that we have staff who are usually always available, you can book a time to call your client or send it straight in and we aim to call the client within 7 minutes. The most important thing is that advisers get in the habit of, and build a process to ensure they are advising their mortgage clients how important it is to protect the asset, the mortgage and their loved ones, from
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