OneFamily
OneFamily is expanding its equity release advice offering, with a doubling of its team of advisers by the end of the first half of this year.
The financial services company is relatively new to the sector, launching OneFamily Advice in 2018. However, it has seen rapid growth in applications since then and is anticipating a further expansion of the team in 2022.
The Brighton based mutual welcomed five experienced new advisers in January; Katie Wilkinson, Ellie Marner, Ian Williams, Joe Marchant and Peryush Patel and will be bringing five more onto the team in May.
Katie joins OneFamily from Canada Life and has previously gained a wealth of experience as a whole of market mortgage broker. Ellie, Joe and Peryush have moved over from AGE Partnership and together bring over 25 years of experience within the sector, whilst Ian joins from KEY having had 17 years working in mortgages and equity release.
Matthew Ellis, Head of OneFamily Advice said, “Our business model is based on our experienced and friendly advisers offering honest and considered whole of market equity release advice remotely. So, when the pandemic hit last year, it was business pretty much as usual for us – whereas it took some competitors weeks to adjust.
“We’ve always felt that customers have been comfortable receiving advice over the phone and the last year has shown that we were definitely ahead of the curve.’
“However, our service relies on the expertise and approachability of our people. Having a warm and friendly voice to speak to is essential for our customers and I’m proud to say that our new colleagues are already proving to be real assets to our team.”
Key Group
2021 kicked off with the country still under strict lockdown but all services at Key Group continue to function as normal with home-based working and social distancing for the limited number of colleagues in the offices taking place. In January, the Group was delighted to announce that it has scooped a one-star Best Companies accreditation – a significant achievement under normal trading conditions but one that was even made more impressive against the backdrop of the pandemic. With growing interest in referral opportunities as the market returns to more normal conditions, Key Group’s referral arm – Key Partnerships – also announced a partnership with MCI Club.
Key – Key Equity Release and The Equity Release Experts
In January, Key launched its full year Market Monitor for 2020, which undertook a deeper analysis than ever before looking at not only the trends around how equity release is being used by customers but also the percentage of the total funds released being used for each purpose. Against the backdrop of social and economic uncertainty caused by Covid, customers had increasingly focused on using equity release to reorganise their finances, repaying debt and in so doing providing more flexibility around their income as well as giving them the opportunity to support their wider families through gifting. Despite the challenges of another national lockdown, Key Equity Release continued to invest in promoting the sector and launched a new TV proposition sponsoring Afternoons on Four – a partnership with Channel Four – to help educate over-55s as to how their housing equity might be used to help them achieve their wants and needs in later life. Key has also strengthened its commitment to supporting vulnerable customers by organising for its customer facing staff, totalling more than 260 individuals – including all advisers – to be certified as Dementia Friends.
more2life
2021 started with a bang when more2life was awarded the Best Provider Lifetime Mortgages award at the Equity Release Awards, along with Sanjay Gadhia who won the Best BDM Award. Unwilling to rest on its laurels, the lender soon announced its first partnership of the year working with PRIMIS to further expand its relationships with networks. more2life followed this up with an announcement that it had developed its relationship with process automation experts Robiquity which saw increased use of robots across its back office functions to deliver an even better, faster service to advisers.
