Inform 29th September 2023

Join National Sales Manager, Fran Green, and one of more2life’s Executive Underwriters, Derrick Singleton, as they take you through a breakdown of Flexi Choice’s Lending Criteria.

What to expect:

• Detailed insight into Flexi Choice’s unique lending criteria.
• In depth look into key criteria benefits.
• Information on further support we offer.

Whether you’re a Flexi Choice pro or new to the product, this webinar will help gain valuable knowledge and enhance your lending expertise.

Watch more2life’s webinar here >>

We team up with 4most Economic Consultants to provide you with a monthly economic update. In case you missed it, our September edition is available here.

The monthly updates cover:

• Inflation and interest rates
• Labour market
• Housing market
• Rental market
• Mortgage market – Activity
• Rate analysis

On Thursday, 5^th October, we will be running an online event.  Keith Church, from 4most Economic Consultants will discuss the October Economic Update.   The event will be recorded and available online shortly after for those who wish to watch on demand. The recording will also be distributed by email so you don’t miss it.

Register to attend here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KGK27LN

Precise Mortgages

Find out how top slicing could help your landlord customers

Our range of buy to let mortgages offers landlords a variety of solutions, whatever their situation. We can help portfolio landlords, limited companies, those looking at HMOs, and first-time-landlords.

Top slicing

Top slicing is available across our entire buy to let range for new purchases and allows landlords to:

• Choose from a wider choice of products
• Achieve greater flexibility around loan size
• Optimise their investment opportunity
• Demonstrate they can meet financial stresses using surplus portfolio income, earned disposable income, or a combination of the two.

To find out more view our online criteria guide or download our Guide to Top Slicing.

Making it easier

Click here to view our mortgage submission guide. This document has been designed to help provide a smooth application process for you and your customer.

Highlights and features of our buy to let range

• Rental cover – Assessment rate:
  • Pay rate plus 1.55% (minimum 5.50%) for short-term fixed and tracker products
  • Pay rate for 5-year fixed rates
• 5-year fixed rate products that help maximise the loan size available
• Maximum term of 35 years
• Maximum age at application 80 years

Click here to see more information about our Limited Companies and Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) range.

Who is our buy to let range for?

• landlords with high quality properties with a low rental yield
• experienced or retired landlords looking to extend their portfolio
• self-employed landlords with 1 year’s accounts
• landlords looking to purchase a new build property
• first time landlords
• consumer buy to let

Portfolios without the heavy lifting?

If you have a landlord who has 4 or more properties click here to visit our dedicated portfolio page.

Packager Panel

Let our Packager Panel do the work for you.

You can submit a residential or buy to let mortgage to us direct or alternatively you can introduce a case to one of our packagers.

Contact one of our packagers direct today.

Bank of England Base Rate (BBR) Trackers and the Reversion Rate

BBR Trackers and reversion rates are variable rates that are linked to the Bank of England base rate. For new applications, any change to BBR will apply on our systems and documentation the next day. For existing accounts, any change to BBR will apply on the day of the change.

All of our BBR tracker products have a floor. This means that if BBR were to fall to 0.00% or less the rate payable will be 0.00% plus the agreed set percentage above BBR. This means that the rate payable will never go below 0.00% plus the additional percentage rate of the tracker mortgage.

The products and/or services featured above are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

We never know when we’ll need to think about later life care for ourselves or our immediate family. With a complex care system and 19% of people in paid employment currently providing unpaid care¹, speaking with a care expert can help make sense of how it all works.

That’s why we’ve introduced Care Concierge to your retail protection, home finance and annuity clients*. It’s a free service that helps clients understand how the care system works, how to find the right care options, and how to fund it. If your client would benefit from financial advice, they’ll be directed back to their adviser.

Your client, or anyone in their immediate family, can pick up the phone and start talking to their named care expert straight away, as often as they need.

Find out more

At Vitality, we’ve always moved with the times. This is reflected in the unique, market leading suite of protection products and plan benefits we offer today. From the ability to claim multiple times on our severity-based Serious Illness Cover, the role Dementia and FrailCare Cover is playing to support later life funding, to all-new levels of flexibility provided by our Income Protection Plan, alongside the evidence-based success of the Vitality Programme.

View our 2023 VitalityLife claims and benefits report here to learn more about Vitality’s upcoming plans.

Fleet Mortgages is launching a new suite of product transfer products for existing borrowers.

The buy-to-let specialist’s product transfer mortgage range currently includes both two- and five-year fixed-rate deals available across Fleet’s three core areas of lending: standard, limited company and HMO/Multi-Unit Block (MUB).

For eligible borrowers, Fleet is making available the following products:

• Standard/limited company borrowers – a two-year fixed-rate priced at 5.79%, with a five-year fixed-rate priced at 6.09%.
• HMO/multi-unit block borrowers – a two-year fixed-rate priced at 5.99%, with a five-year fixed-rate priced at 6.23%.

Fees for all product transfer products are 2.5% – a 50 basis points reduction on the equivalent new business product range – with a revert rate of bank base rate plus 3% after the end of the fixed-rate period.

Advisers will need to check with Fleet to discuss existing customer eligibility before applying for product transfers.

Fleet chief commercial officer Steve Cox comments: “Given where we are with the new rate environment, we believe this is a vital new option that will support ongoing property investment and provide peace of mind to eligible borrowers in terms of their continued ability to be active in the private rental sector.

“It should also give a greater level of confidence to advisers in recommending Fleet to new borrowers, knowing that we are able to offer product transfers when those deals come to an end.

He adds: “The rates on the product transfer range currently mirror those currently available for new borrowers, however there is a discount on the fee and of course our existing relationship with the customer will make the processing that much simpler.

Zurich is very excited to share with you their latest videos talking about their improved Personal Protection proposition to offer customers bespoke packages of cover for different life stages.

Introducing CI: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGBOnU-MeRc

A tale of two stories – are you as protected as you can be?: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qAvaAUN3Ds

CI customer story – Jon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEqS_k1E3QY

With relatively low levels of activity currently being experienced across the residential housing market, more and more attention is being focused on the buy-to-let sector. Read the full story here

Certain medical conditions are child specific, often diagnosed in pregnancy, at birth or during early childhood.

Typically, the protection needs of those expecting a baby or raising a young family are different to those with older children. As part of Zurich’s new critical illness proposition, it has introduced an element of optional children’s cover that specifically addresses this need in the market.

Pregnancy and Early Childhood Cover provides a valuable financial safety net for young families. Covering a range of congenital and early childhood conditions, it is likely to be of interest to those planning to start or expand their family.

Suffering from complications of pregnancy, including a still birth, or having a baby who is diagnosed with a condition at birth or during early childhood can take a huge emotional and financial toll on a family. Putting in place financial protection against such unforeseen circumstances gives these clients the peace of mind that they can take some time out and be there for their child whatever that may entail.

Because the cover is an optional add-on, it means that families who don’t plan to have any more children in the future, need not pay for cover that they can never realistically claim on.

Whether the cover is suitable for a client will depend on personal circumstances, protection goals and budget. Let’s take a look at some of the key questions and answers surrounding the cover and how advisers can tailor the best solution for their clients.

Continue reading

We are all different and that’s what makes our protection needs unique. In this article, we explore the benefits of Zurich’s new critical illness proposition through a number of hypothetical case studies to give advisers an illustration of how the cover can be fit for purpose for your clients.

As an industry designed to foster financial resilience, it is only right that the financial services sector revolves around the consumer. Delivering good client outcomes lies at the heart of every advisory practice.

Improving customer outcomes has been the key driver in the development of Zurich’s new critical illness proposition. It also underpins the Consumer Duty, which aims to provide fairer, more consumer-focused outcomes for the customer.

Both product providers and intermediary partners have an important role to play in ensuring customers receive products and services that meet their needs, are fit for purpose and offer fair value.

Ideally, this should be at the point of sale and throughout the customer’s lifetime. That is why Zurich’s critical illness cover has more flexibility than ever before to enable it to bend and flex to suit customer circumstances as they evolve.

Some hypothetical examples will serve to illustrate how you can create a package of cover for each client that is truly bespoke.

Continue reading 

Criteria Update

From Monday 25 September we are making the below criteria changes:

Key Changes

• We will no longer require a 5% deposit from homebuyers using the Forces Help to Buy scheme.
• Additional Armed Forces-related benefit income will be able to be used as part of the affordability assessment:

1.  Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.
2.  Armed Forces Independent Payment.
3.  Spousal Guaranteed Income Payment.

If you have any questions, please contact your dedicated Skipton BDM, or for further information please visit our A-Z Lending Criteria webpage for more details.

Care Concierge

Later life care is a societal challenge impacting families due to the UK’s increasing ageing population and a complex care sector.

Legal & General’s new service is a free confidential telephone advisory service that gives your clients access to care experts with extensive knowledge about the care sector. They’ll be able to support with:

• Providing impartial and expert guidance to help them understand later life care options in the UK
• Help them find care as quickly as possible
• Making sure they understand the funding and benefit options that are available to them or their loved one

Is there a cost?

No. The Care Concierge service is included as standard on protection policies bought from the 20^{th of} July 2023.

If your clients need to get in touch with Care Concierge.

Call the team on:

Freephone – 0808 196 7817

Or visit the adviser website: legalandgeneral.com/adviser/care-concierge