YBS and Age Partnership work together to support interest only maturity clients
Yorkshire Building Society will partner with equity release specialists Age Partnership to ensure their interest only mortgage clients benefit from the widest range of solutions.
A unique partnership, believed to be the first of its kind, providing whole of market equity release and mortgage advice with no advice fee, sees Age Partnership offering this multi-solution service for Yorkshire’s interest only clients who have no repayment vehicle or a shortfall at the end of their mortgage term.
Andrew Clare, Senior Risk and Quality Control Manager of Customer Operations at Yorkshire Building Society further explains; “We are very pleased to be working with Age Partnership to develop a process to support customers who need wider advice than the Group can currently provide.
“Age Partnership’s values and culture are aligned to ours and it is a completely customer centric organisation, as exemplified by their Net Promoter Score approach. I have also been really impressed by the eagerness and care their people have shown in developing the right approach for Society customers.
“We look forward to introducing customers in complete confidence and trust that Age Partnership will look after their interests in the same way we would.”
The equity release sector enjoyed record growth in 2016 with over £2billion of housing equity released. Clients repaying interest only mortgages fuelled a significant proportion of the increased demand for this solution and all indicators suggest this is likely to continue.
Tom Moloney, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Age Partnership said; “We are delighted to be working with Yorkshire to support their interest only customers. Together we have tailored our services to ensure clients have the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions.
“Our offering will encompass residential mortgage and equity release advice so clients benefit from real choice. To ensure cost is not a barrier to engagement no advice fee will be payable.
“Combined with the right advice, equity release can play a key role in supporting clients with no interest only mortgage repayment strategy. With competitive rates of interest, improved flexibility and the ability to service interest, this could be a viable long-term solution for many clients”.
The partnership went live at the beginning of March.
Viva Retirement Solutions
We were very pleased to announce that Viva Retirement Solutions were shortlisted for the category of Best Equity Release Broker at the forthcoming Mortgage Strategy Awards. This is a great achievement for a small company with 2 employees and continues their success following the National Equity Release Awards.
This shows smaller companies within the industry that you can get noticed and nominated by people within the industry for the hard work and good service that you provide.
Responsible Life
Responsible Life are pleased to announce that we have launched a new commercial partnership with the Telegraph Media Group. We will provide an educational, informative service to their readers to ensure they have access to the very best and most accurate information. Resulting enquirers will then be able to benefit from our advice service and we’re pleased to say we’ve had over 2000 enquiries to date.
Bower Retirement
Last month we celebrated at the Mortgage Strategy Awards having won Best Broker for Equity Release. It’s with pride that we accept this prestigious award and feel honoured to have been recognised for our efforts in providing the best service to our customers as they are at the heart of everything we do. We hope to see continued success this year having been shortlisted for two categories in the What Mortgage Awards 2017; Best Equity Release Adviser and Best Equity Release Adviser Customer Service.
For the recent award and future nominations we also have our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to thank. We are further developing this bespoke tool which means our advisors can continue to set a high standard and maximise the customer experience. By having processes that are unique and tailor made it means that the service we offer is more efficient and streamlined for our customer’s satisfaction which results in Bower Retirement continuing to raise the bar with customer service levels.
Another key differentiator that makes us stand out from competition is our Bower Private Clientssector. Our team of first class specialists give retirement lending solutions dedicated to high net worth individuals. With more complex finances our customers can have confidence in our advisors to take care of them through each step of the process. Clara Curtis, who heads up the division says; “We offer a bespoke and exceptional service for our high net worth clients particularly as we have advisers who come from private client backgrounds.”
Pure Retirement
We’ve been joined by 12 new starters so far this year in our underwriting and broker support teams, making sure we’re always on hand for our registered advisers to speak to if they want to discuss a case. We’re also recruiting for an in-house Telephone Account Manager to allow us to engage more frequently with advisers and further tailor our support to their needs.
We continue to lead on the Council’s Adviser Engagement Initiative, promoting the Adviser Guide to Equity Releasethrough the Iress Exchange throughout April, encouraging non ER advisers to find out more about the industry and the opportunities it presents. We’ll also be supporting the Council at Leeds Mortgage Business Expo on April 26th, where Chris Flowers will be presenting as part of the ER knowledge hub. Visit our stand to find out more and try your luck on our scratchcard competitionfor your chance to win a prize. Congratulations once again to our lucky winners from Glasgow’s FS Expo!
Registration is now open for our Summer Roadshow, taking place in London on June 28th and aimed at advisers starting out in the industry or looking to further improve their skills. Contact [email protected] to reserve your space while places are still available.
April’s edition of Lifetime Mortgage Insight Magazine is now available from The Premier Equity Release Club and sponsored by Pure Retirement. Containing articles and Information from the Equity Release Council alongside a host of ER providers and specialists, it’s a really useful knowledge bank, now available on a quarterly basis.
And finally, we were delighted to be a finalist for Best Equity Release Lender in last month’s Mortgage Strategy Awards, and also to be up for several of this year’s upcoming awards. Voting is still open if you would like to vote for Pure or our Heads of Business development and thank you to all for your votes so far.
