"With the arrival of Consumer Duty, it’s never been so important for brokers to have meaningful conversations with clients about protection."
Just Wealth has strengthened its referral proposition to include support with protection cases, helping brokers at its sister firm Just Mortgages meet their Consumer Duty obligations.
In addition to referring clients for wider financial advice such as pensions, savings and investments, mortgage brokers can now utilise a Just Wealth financial adviser to help clients with their protection needs.
It comes with the recent arrival of Consumer Duty regulations designed to eliminate foreseeable harm and ensure good outcomes for all consumers. The protection gap has long been identified as a clear challenge for the industry and under the new rules, a lack of protection can be seen as foreseeable harm.
Recent research by the FCA as part of its Financial Lives survey found that more than half of UK adults (53%) had no form of protection in the last two years. It also found that nearly 13 million people have low financial resilience.
Dave Magee, head of wealth at Just Wealth, said: “In the current climate and with the arrival of Consumer Duty, it’s never been so important for brokers to have meaningful conversations with clients about protection. When that isn’t always possible, our new service allows Just Wealth advisers to step in and ensure that the mortgage is fully protected and the client isn’t left exposed.
“We’re already in the process of overhauling our entire referral process to make it easier for brokers to refer and maintain a clear line of sight throughout that journey. Best of all, brokers benefit from the revenue share and ensure their regulatory requirements are met. Through our annual reviews, our advisers will be able to regularly monitor the suitability of products as required by the new Duty, all while keeping clients warm for brokers for their next remortgage period.”
Carl Parker, national director at Just Mortgages, added: “In a busy brokerage, protection can all too often be a poor relation to mortgage advice. In the spirit of Consumer Duty and delivering the best service to clients, this cannot be the case. However, this great partnership with our sister firm Just Wealth presents a real opportunity for brokers to increase protection, maximise every transaction and stay on top of compliance. Many of our brokers have already built strong partnerships with Just Wealth advisers, which will be reassuring as they now look to refer over clients for protection.”
