Inform 17th March 2023

Pure Retirement

The FCA’s Consumer Duty is coming

Pure Retirement will be launching its Countdown to Consumer Duty webinar series, enabling you to enhance your understanding of the Duty, and what it means for you and your clients.

The series will be free to attend and count towards your CPD.

The first of their five sessions, run in partnership with Advise Wise, starts April 6th.

Join Head of Financial Services at The London Institute of Banking & Finance, John Somerville, plus Nic Dent, Market Engagement Director, and Julie Pardy, Director of Regulation at Worksmart Limited – Leading supplier of RegTech to the Financial Services Industry and take a deep dive into the detail of what advisers should be thinking and doing now in the run-up to the formal implementation date.

Register for the webinar here

Zephyr Homeloans

NEW video about portfolio cross-subsidisation

Zephyr Homeloans fourth video in their new series is out now and this week, Zephyr RSM, Andy Rowe, takes two minutes to talk you through how portfolio cross-subsidisation works and how it can help your clients.

Zephyr will release a new video each week, so check their website often to watch them here, or sign-up to their email newsletter here to be kept up to date.

Suffolk Building Society

Self-build 101: How no set stage releases helped a couple with their renovation project.

For many years, we have been supporting brokers and their clients on self-build, renovation and conversion cases. At Suffolk Building Society, our expert underwriters and dedicated team are committed to help lay the foundations for a successful project.

Our approach is different from other lenders as we do not restrict to set stages or timescales during the build. This means that, subject to valuation, we can release funds as and when required*. Our commitment to flexibility ensures that your project can progress smoothly and on schedule as often projects don’t go clients might expect.

Case study: Here’s how we helped our clients Ryan and Rosie with flexible stage payments.

Ryan and Rosie had bought a gorgeous Victorian property for £400,000. It had lots of original features but had not been well maintained over the years. They were faced with a large list of repairs and improvements, to which they needed a solution, fast.

Flexible stage release to the rescue.

• They needed £320,000 to purchase and £110,000 to do the work required.
• No set stage releases provided maximum flexibility during the build, meaning they only paid interest on what they borrowed.
• This gave them greater control over their project as they were able to manage their cash flow more effectively.
• They only drew down the funds they needed as they progressed through each stage of the build.
• This allowed them to work closely with their builder, ensuring that the project remained on track and within budget.
• On build completion they switched to a retention product without penalty.

End result.

This resulted in one happy broker who placed their case, not forgetting Ryan and Rosie who are now the proud owners of a fully renovated property worth over £620,000.

Get in touch.

We’re self build experts with years of experience in making dreams become reality. So, whether your client is converting an old windmill, renovating a farmhouse, extending their family home, or starting from scratch with their own creation – we’ll do our best to help.

If you have a specific case in mind or want to know more about what we can offer, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 0330 123 1073. Our team is always available to answer your questions and provide support.

*Max 80% LTV (70% for loans over £1m) at the point of each stage release. A £100 stage release fee applies per release and is limited to one per month.

Legal & General

Business Protection Bootcamp by Legal & General!

Register now for Legal & General’s Business Protection Bootcamp – One week, 5 sessions of 30mins webinars designed to help open up the Business Protection market to you. These are live webinar and are all CII accredited for structured CPD. The schedule is below and please feel free to register for as many as you wish.

27th March 1:30pm – 2pm – Business Protection Research –  uncovering the need  – Register Now

The areas covered and learning objectives are

1. Summarise the business protection opportunity, the demographics of UK small businesses and how advisers can best develop this market.
2. Illustrate business owner’s attitude to risk within the context of business protection and the areas of risk that business protection products protect.
3. Establish the need for businesses to protect their debts, the risk of the loss of a key person cover, protect their shares of their business, and also protection for their families.

28th March 1:30pm – 2:15pm – Key Person Protection – Register Now

The areas covered and learning objectives are

1. Demonstrate the business protection opportunity, the demographics of UK small businesses and how advisers can best develop this
2. Explain the need for key person cover and how to set up key person cover for different types of businesses
3. Describe the treatment of premiums and policy proceeds for taxation purposes, and also how to calculate the appropriate sum assured

Wednesday 29th March 1:30pm – 2:15pm – Shareholder and Partnership protection – Register Now

The areas covered and learning objectives are

1. Summaries the business protection opportunity, the demographics of UK small businesses and demonstrate you can best develop this
2. Demonstrate how to set up the different types of share protection arrangements and the supporting agreements for share protection.
3. Explain how to arrive at an appropriate sum assured for a share protection arrangement and the need for premium equalisation

31st March 1:30pm – 2:15pm – Putting family protection on expenses – Relevant Life plan and Executive Income Protection – Register Now

The areas covered and learning objectives are

1. Understand the criteria for a Relevant Life Plans and Executive Income Protection
2. Identify why it is important to highlight the importance of protecting your income as part of a financial review
3. Identify the opportunities for writing Relevant Life Plans and Executive Income protection

31st March 1:30pm – 2pm – Articles of association and company accounts – Register Now

The areas covered and learning objectives are

1. Explain how a business is set up and the how the associated documentation can help drive a conversation around the ownership.
2. Describe the structure of accounts and Identify the appropriate details to help you demonstrate the risks for a business
3. Demonstrate how to assist your clients in understanding the financial impact of death , illness and injury on their businesses

Did you know that almost a third of people in the UK have never checked their credit rating?

According to financial website Nerdwallet’s Household Debt Report, only 16% have checked their rating within the past month and just 10% have checked in the past six to nine months. The report also found that younger generations are less likely to regularly check their score compared to older generations, and that men are less likely than women to regularly check, with 33% admitting they’ve never checked compared to 25% of women.

Among the reasons people gave for not checking their score were that they didn’t know it was something they should be doing regularly or that they didn’t know how to. Even more alarmingly, some people said they avoided having a look simply because they were afraid of what they may find.

So what happens when they need to apply for a residential mortgage, but a quick search of their record finds there’s a skeleton in their credit closet? James Forth, Head of Sales at Precise Mortgages explains how their residential range could help residential customers if they discover there’s a blip on their record.

Read now

Buy your first home all under one roof!

Gen H has designed this bundle to help first-time buyers find their place on the property ladder. Your FTB clients will get access to lower rates when you get a Gen H mortgage and select Gen H Legal as your conveyancer.

As a broker selecting this bundle for your client, they’ll get:

1. Conveyancing from Gen H Legal, their conveyancing firm
2. Exclusive reduced mortgage rates on 2-, 3- and 5-year fixed rate products at loan-to-values up to 95%
3. Free valuations

What about conveyancing? Gen H Legal is setting a new standard for conveyancing with proactive service, jargon-free support, and transparent pricing. Gen H Legal works in harmony with Gen H as the lender to help your clients move sooner – without all the stress.

Learn more about Gen H Legal by clicking here.
To view the first time bundle rates go to www.generationhome.com/our-rates.

More2life is delighted to announce three in-person Learning Lab Live Events.

These Consumer Duty and Lead Generation Workshops are designed to provide support on the topics that matter to you. In addition to the experienced more2life team John Dunkley will take a look at the psychological aspects of Lead Generation.

Book now to avoid disappointment:

Tuesday 28th March – Manchester (North)
Thursday 30th March – Solihull (Midlands)
Tuesday 4th April – London (South)

Do not miss out! Make sure you register for either of these dates now! Register here

Did you know that our member benefits app, Healthwise, could save your clients up to £1,800 a year? For the past two years, we’ve launched our annual HealthWise report and it’s back again! Let’s have a look at the highlights from the year…

• In 2022, our members gave our services an average score of 4.7/5
• On average more than 3 out of 5 are repeat users of the service
• The number one service was Remote GP appointments, accounting for 61% of usage

To see how your clients are using HealthWise, why not grab a coffee and have a read of our report?

Read now

Lendinvest

How to give brokers around the clock support

Paige Archer, Internal BDM at LendInvest, explains the buddy system they’ve implemented to give brokers expert support every day of the week, without losing connection with their regional BDMs.

Find out more here.

Impact Specialist Finance

Offering solutions for clients with complex incomes and less-than-perfect credit

The Mortgage Lender’s residential Lumi range is a packager exclusive available now through Impact Packaging. The residential range is available up to 75% loan to value, and caters for customers with defaults, CCJs, and mortgage arrears. Compared to TML’s core range, it offers enhanced credit criteria for unsecured arrears, bankruptcy, and payday loans.

• Available for Purchase & Remortgage
• Minimum valuation £70k (£150k in London and South East)
• Minimum loan £25,001, Maximum loan £1m (above on referral basis)
• Gifted equity considered

TML’s latest Lumi product guide

Take a closer look at the Lumi Packager Exclusive Product Guide available now through Impact Packaging.

Have an adverse case you would like to discuss?

Call the impact packaging team now on 01403 272625

Mansfield Building Society

Why hope is not lost for first-time buyers

It’s not exactly a secret that saving a decent-sized deposit has been incredibly challenging in recent years.

Since the pandemic renters have faced the inflationary pressures of rising prices and interest rates, making saving even harder. Even if these would-be owners reorganised their finances to deal with these hurdles, they will likely have seen any spare money eaten up by increased rental payments.

For example, figures from Hamptons recently found that rents rose by 7.7% in the 12 months to December 2022, equating to an extra £1,000 plus a year for the typical tenant.

All of this has come at a time when house prices have rocketed at a frankly incredible rate. What would have been a sufficient deposit six months prior may no longer be enough for that first-time buyer to get onto the housing ladder after all.

Read the full article here.

MPowered Mortgages

Launches with mortgage clubs

In case you missed it, here at MPowered Mortgages we’ve expanded the distribution of our prime residential range.

You can access our suite of products by registering today.

Why your customers will love MPowered

• Free valuation available on every application
• £500 cashback for every remortgage case
• Up to 5.5x LTI available for employed applicants

Register now to access our suite of products

1. Fill out our quick and easy registration form
2. We’ll verify your FCA number and details
3. Within 24 hours, we’ll notify you to confirm your access

Click here to register.