We started the week on AdviserSoftware.com with a look back at Part 1 of our January AdviceTech Forum where our expert panellists, Jo French and Keith Hare of Benchmark Capital and Setul Mehta from Openwork, focused on what advisers want from platforms, pensions, and savings providers in the coming year.
On Tuesday we held the February forum and there were many more forthright views about why platforms and insurers are not adapting to emerging adviser working practices. The transcripts will be published in the coming weeks and are certainly worth looking out for.
On Friday we highlighted our analysis of the Risk Profiling solution from A2Risk. Advisers who want to learn more can do so on our Advice Tech Hub; an online tool that analyses the solutions available to advice firms and is available for free to registered financial advisers.
Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who has completed our Adviser Tech Rating Surveys so far. All three surveys are live on the site, and we are getting a growing number of responses. These are a great chance for advisers to tell software suppliers what they think of their offerings, and particularly what you’d like to see more of. Building up these ratings will help other advisers understand which solution is might best suit their needs.
To advisers who have not already responded, could you please take a few minutes to complete each of the surveys under the following links to help other firms find the right tech for them and shape the next wave of solutions you use.
Rate your Wealth Practice Management System
Rate your Cashflow/Financial Planning Tool
Over on Protection Guru we started the week with another new product announcement, this time from Holloway Friendly. Rob provided a detailed review of the new My Sick Pay IP policy, covering the main policy features and benefits and offering his opinion on their refreshing approach to policy literature. Read Rob’s analysis to learn what we like about the Holloway that we think other insurers should consider.
Given the regular coverage in the news at the moment about cost of living increases, particularly for renters, Rob’s insight on Tuesday examining guaranteed increase options for rental clients was particularly timely. This article covered the options across all protection products including IP, Life and CI.
On Wednesday this week we launched a new and updated LV= Critical Illness Showcase page. These pages provide advisers with an easy to digest and concise summary of an insurer’s products and USPs. In this case we’ve detailed LV=’s new critical illness policy options, with interactive guides and graphics, all in one place.
Later on Wednesday Rob published an insight on Relevant Life continuation options, a valuable feature but one that comes with a few terms and restrictions advisers need to be aware of.
On Thursday we looked at income protection again, this time specifically what return to work career support services income protection providers offer.
On Tuesday and Thursday this week we also brought you more coverage from our recent February Protection Forum, you can read part 3 here and part 4 here. Lots of great views shared in these sessions, so if you didn’t make it to the meetings spend a couple of hours over the weekend catching up.
Finally, we finished the week with a round-up of all of our current insurer critical illness showcase pages.
As well as providing objective and comprehensive analysis of providers propositions the support we receive from the creation of these pages goes a long way towards making Protection Guru possible, so please take the time to read as many as possible.
According to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), over half of workers who have yet to retire (56%) are worried that they are failing to save enough for retirement.
Several professional bodies, advice firms, and workplace pension providers have called on the Government to make changes to auto-enrolment to avoid the UK sleepwalking into a retirement crisis.
In our latest double length insight article, we look at the suggestions that have been made and why they may be necessary to address the state of the nation’s personal finances.
Apparently it’s going to be a freezing weekend again so stay warm and safe everyone.
