Network News: October 2022

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

HLP go behind the scenes to learn some top business tips from successful firms across the network

HLP LAUNCHES COMMISSION SYSTEM UPGRADES

more about what the new HLP Commission System can do for you and your firm

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help boost

HLP

help power effective

Contents

PARTNER FEATURE

Startup Success 07

Delivering Exceptional Service 09

Building a Successful Business 11

NEWS FROM HLP

Redefining Partner Support 15

HLP Release New EPC Technology 17

An Enormous Refinancing Opportunity 19

A New Consumer Duty 21

Upcoming Compliance Changes 22

Enhanced Training & Development 25

HLP Appoints Second Protection Specialist 28

Protection Is Paramount 29

HLP to distribute 3 million client communications 31

New Client Marketing Campaigns 33

HLP Launches Commission System Upgrades 35

Broaden Your Horizons 37

Upcoming Events 39

FEATURE

Virgin Money 45

Precise Mortgages (Liza Campion) 47

Precise Mortgages (Adrian Moloney) 49

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Welcome

It’s with much excitement that I welcome you to the first edition of our new HLPartnership Network News.

We’ve listened to the feedback of our members to create a magazine that’s packed full of the stories that you want to hear.

Inside, we have created three distinct areas to the magazine:

1) Partner Feature

We go behind-the-scenes to bring together inspirational stories from key HLP partner firms across the country, highlighting their success stories, with advice and tips for those wishing to do similar.

2) News from HLP

Find out the latest updates at HLPartnership with our new Network Area; in this edition we give updates on our new commission system, discuss some of the marketing resources available for your firm and how you can get support to tackle challenging protection conversations, head-on.

3) Supplier Feature

Read the latest updates available from some of the largest financial providers in the industry, sharing useful advice and insight for your business.

Tell us what you think

We hope that you enjoy this first copy of our new HLP Network News, if there is anything you’d like to see more of in future editions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Christopher Tanner Chief Executive Officer

Christopher began his career in financial services, working for a range of well-known insurers and mortgage brokers, before establishing the first Lifetime Mortgage lender in Spain, with Blevins Franks Group (BFG). Together with BFG’s owners, a controlling share was purchased in HLP and Christopher became CEO in 2008. Under Christopher’s tenure, the network has grown from 50 to over 900 advisers, and last year HLP completed over £11bn worth of mortgage lending.

We strongly believe in championing the success of partners across the HLP Network.

In this edition we bring together some highly inspirational stories, a behind-the-scenes account of growing a brand new advice firm with a difference, detail of how to face some of the toughest challenges in the industry, and some essential tips on how to put customer experience at the forefront of your business strategy to compete in today’s marketplace.

Simon Cox Cox & Flight Financial Solutions Ltd

Startup Success

Launching Cox & Flight in early 2021 has been an incredible learning curve. With lengthy careers in Corporate Estate Agency and Financial Services behind us, we finally took the plunge to launch our own independent mortgage & advice business. Despite our combined experience running to over 70 years, every day is a learning day, and there’s still lots more to get our heads around to maximise the business potential.

The power of introducers

Scot Flight Cox & Flight Financial Solutions Ltd

An appointed representative of HLPartnership, Cox and Flight Financial Solutions is a mortgage & protection advice business that aims to make a difference. Owners Simon Cox and Scot Flight set the target high, delivering consistently excellent customer service and with a passion to protect clients for anything life throws their way. A background in Estate Agency and Financial Services sectors has benefitted the firm in founding mutually beneficial introducer relationships to help drive the business forward.

In our first few months of trading, we were pleased to exceed our own targets by a good margin, and part of that initial success can be put down to taking time to partner with key introducers in the estate agency market.

Utilising links and knowledge from our previous careers helped us to form the right introducer relationships to drive new clients to us during the home buying process. By fostering closer relationships and willing to invest time, effort and resource to a mutually beneficial partnership helped turbo-charge the introduction process to grow case volumes in a short period of time.

Delivering a point of difference

We’ve set out to deliver a truly great customer experience, at the heart of which is recognising the core requirement of protecting their loved ones and the things that they hold most important in life.

We’ve set out to deliver a truly great customer experience

We started our careers in Estate Agency in the 1980s before moving into Financial Services. Being involved in repossessions was a massive eye-opener, with an alarming volume of cases being caused by tragic circumstances, that could’ve been avoided if the client had received correct advice and had the appropriate protection in place.

That’s why we’re extremely passionate about offering clients a full range of protection options that suit their individual circumstances. By always displaying our values of being honest, clear and transparent, we demonstrate to clients that we’re here to keep them safe and protected, allowing clients to make an educated decision for themselves.

Our view is that arranging the mortgage is the transactional part of the exercise – helping clients to keep the roof over their head, no matter what life may throw at them, is both our moral and professional obligation. In 2022, our mortgage-to-life conversion is 82.24%, and our mortgage-to-GI conversion rate is 47.88%, but we are always looking at ways to drive the figure higher.

The last year has been a whirlwind of growth for the business, and we’re excited about what’s coming next. Already we’ve expanded the team with several new advisers joining us, increasing our number of introducer partners, and we’re committed to giving back to the community, giving our time, money, resources and experience to help those around us, and the charitable causes that we’re passionate in supporting.

Paul Hampton

Approved Mortgage Solutions Ltd

Based in Sunderland, Approved Mortgage Solutions specialise in providing their clients with top quality mortgage, GI and protection advice. The firm joined the HLPartnership network in 2020 and have built a reputation on developing strong relationships with clients, seeking to deliver exceptional service in every instance.

Delivering Exceptional Service

With the current strains experienced from lenders, solicitors, and estate agents, it’s never been more important, or more challenging to deliver good customer outcomes.

Manage Expectations

A big part of delivering good customer service is managing expectations. As a good mortgage adviser, you are the centre of communications, dealing with the lender, client, estate agent, solicitor, and insurer. We are usually the first to hear when clients are not satisfied with the service of others.

We are blessed with good systems such as 360Dotnet that allows communication in whichever method clients prefer.

We start by letting the client know what to expect of them, the need for accurate information in the fact find, the documents required and advise at the earliest stages that lenders will ask for proof of the facts, which makes the rest of the process much easier.

Under promise and over deliver Service levels from every lender are currently poor in comparison to what we have grown to expect. Our clients don’t have any expectations, so if we moan and whinge about lender’s service, the client will too. If we tell them that the lender has a great product, so they are a little busier than normal, we are still letting the client know about processing delays, but we are portraying the delays as a positive thing. It’s an old saying, but ‘under promise and over deliver’ has never been more relevant than it is today.

The importance of communication and SLAs It’s vital to maintain regular contact with clients. We are blessed with good systems

such as 360Dotnet that allows communication in whichever method clients prefer. We also strive to make it personal, with calls, emails, SMS to clients and so on.

We have found that service level agreements (SLA’s) are also important too, it’s easy to see when a lender has not met theirs, but few of us set our own. Setting SLA’s and communicating them with your team can be a massive win. They can be something as simple as pledging to email clients with an update every Friday, for example.

Most clients become frustrated or dissatisfied when they are kept in the dark about progress or even worse, are given wrong information. We make a point of asking our clients if they have any concerns or worries upfront, before committing to a product, and make efforts to keep abreast of what they are feeling to help head off most niggles before they can become dissatisfied.

Joining the HLPartnership network in 2020, Fidenti are a family-run advice business based in Sandbach, Cheshire. The firm specialises in providing quality advice to clients on mortgage, protection and GI, with their dedicated team of advisers remaining true to the values of the family business that they started in 2015.

Building a Successful Business

Like many businesses, Fidenti started out from our back bedroom, with modest aspirations of taking on an adviser each year, over the decade to come. In the early days, we worked hard to build relationships with estate agents and slowly began to build enough business to take on an additional adviser.

Building a point of difference We tried to differentiate ourselves in our offering to clients, being much more focused on the ‘service’ clients could expect, rather than volume and churn, and this is essentially how we’ve built the business to its current position. To us, ‘Service’ means not just understanding the market, lenders, criteria, options and protection, it also means truly understanding the needs of each and every client, their situation and how we can help them achieve their goals.

Nick D’Silva

Fidenti Mortgages & Protection Ltd

Corrie D’Silva Fidenti Mortgages & Protection Ltd

It’s important to us to build a team of people that share our passion in doing the best for our clients.

We’re available when and how the client needs us, whether digitally, or face-to-face, and we truly care about every client. This approach has created a huge amount of organic growth through client referrals.

Building relationships with national builders has greatly helped our growth; it also means that we do not have any need to spend money on leads or referrals.

Developing the right team

Fidenti is now a team of 11 self-employed mortgage & protection advisers, 2 employed GI & Protection advisers and 9 support team members, working across our two business premises – a far cry from our back-bedroom origins!

It’s important to us to build a team of people that share our passion in doing the best for our clients, and in return, we try to do the best for them. We have invested in our staff, including

circuits, yoga, games room and bar, team days out and social events. We also focus on building relationships with BDMs, HLP and our local community, including charities, the NHS and carbon offset projects.

Maintaining a positive outlook Since starting the business in 2017, we’ve faced a number of challenges, investing in the right people, coping with the pandemic and recent market rollercoasters, but resilience and teamwork helped us through.

Our immediate focus for the coming period is around Consumer Duty, over the past twelve months we’ve implemented a range of changes to support this, and we will be working with HLP to ensure that any further changes are fulfilled. Our main piece of advice for any adviser or firm would be to keep sight of who you’re trying to help and why, everything else will follow!

In this edition, we cover a diverse range of topics, including the current remortgage opportunity, assistance with tackling challenging protection conversations, sharing our latest range of pre-approved marketing materials ready at your fingertips, and details of our exciting event calendar for the months ahead.

Find out the latest updates and what’s been happening here at HLP, and how it can help your business.

Redefining Partner Support

Supporting our members is at the core of the HLPartnership network approach. Our very purpose is to provide industry-leading service to our members across a vast array of topics, from Regulation to Compliance, from Technology to Marketing, and everything in between.

Our dedicated Partner Support team is on hand to give assistance and practical advice to help our members on anything that arises, being on call and available for every working day, as they have done, ever since the foundation of the HLP network.

Evolving with our partners

We’re constantly listening to the needs of our members, and operating within a fast-moving and highly regulated industry, HLPartnership never stands still. We’re making a number of evolutionary changes to ensure that we’re in the best place to continue giving marketleading service for our members going forward.

Our commitment to members runs deep, it impacts everything that we do as a network, how we operate, how we communicate and how we function. To build on this, and to recognise the importance of our members, we are changing the terminology being used – members will now be known as partners.

Although it may sound a small change, it reflects a much wider shift in mindset across the HLP network to one that embeds service at the core, with our partners central to

everything we do, and given equal parity at the table.

Investment in change

In building the network of tomorrow, alongside the technological investments made in new platforms, HLP have invested considerably in building our team to give our partners the support needed.

We have appointed a new Operations Manager, a seasoned expert brought in to oversee all elements of support for our partners. The role is designed to allow HLP to review every touch point and activity to optimise and make it fit for the needs of HLP partners, both today and into the future.

HLP have further invested in developing our dedicated team too, analysing skillsets and areas of expertise to make a number of strategic changes in roles and responsibilities, recognising talent and driving personal growth within the business.

The Partner Support Team has grown in strength, with two brand new team-members joining the business to further bolster the support available and give faster service for our partners. Our dynamic team is headed up by a new Partner Support Team Manager, a highly passionate and experienced team member stepping up to the role, having demonstrated their ability to go above and beyond to meet the needs of HLP partners in recent times.

A brand-new hybrid role of Systems Manager has been created, designed to take a holistic approach combining the requirements of HLP partners’ service needs and technology needs, to together help ensure that as a network, we can develop and deliver a uniquely-rounded package of tools and support that work seamlessly together.

Support for the future

We believe that all of these changes will help drive HLP to give faster and more tailored service to our partners, delivering exceptionally on the topics that matter most. The team will grow and evolve over time, constantly listening to the needs of our partners, reacting and taking the initiative at moments of key industry change to truly demonstrate the value of the network, delivering what our partners need, when they need it.

Shaun Almond Managing Director

Shaun headed up the Mortgage Support Network prior to merging with HLPartnership in 2016 and resuming his role as Managing Director, now at HLP. With a background of over 35 years at Legal & General, in a range of senior management roles, Shaun brings with him a wealth of experience in working with Appointed Representatives, helping them to grow and develop their respective firms and he continue to succeed in driving growth in the HLP network to this day.

HLP Release

New EPC Technology

With environmental concerns already coming to the forefront of many decisions made in life, homes and financing are set to be the next key areas where large scale changes will be required.

The UK Government have committed to a net-zero carbon position by 2050, with all UK homes required to have a minimum of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ‘C’ rating by 2035. Currently, UK homes represent the third largest source of emissions, contributing

Christopher Tanner Chief Executive Officer

to 22% of the UK’s net emission volume, so it’s clear that change is required in the years to come.

Costly Improvements

However, significant resource is required in order to upgrade the existing housing stock to meet these new targets. Between 60-70% of all UK homes are rated at an EPC ‘D’ rating or below, and would therefore require investment to be made.

The UK Government have committed to a net-zero carbon position by 2050.

It’s estimated to cost up to £8,000 to upgrade a ‘D’ rated home to an EPC ‘C’-rated property, whilst the cost of moving an average UK home from a ‘G’ rating to the target ‘C’ is over £30,000.

Overall, the cost of upgrading all UK homes to meet the 2050 target is likely exceed an incredible £125 billion, so it’s not something to be taken lightly.

HLPartnership recognise that this will be a significant issue for both homeowners and landlords seeking finance in the future, as EPC ratings play an even greater role in selecting and financing property.

EPC Integration

As part of HLP’s commitment to environmental, social and governance strategy, we have invested in our systems to integrate the Government EPC rating within the HLP Adviser Portal for all of our partner firms to view. This means that advisers will be able to check the EPC ratings of their client’s properties within

the system itself, and help give advice on the likely costs of improvements required in future, and help the client plan ahead when it comes to financing.

By integrating the EPC rating within the HLP Adviser Portal, it also helps to power meaningful conversations with landlords. It will be easier to view whether a property can be eligible for a ‘Green’ mortgage from a lender and the ability to provide EPC details and improvement costs for their entire portfolio will give a further great reason for landlords to seek advice from HLP partner firms.

Currently the UK Government timeline for the implementation seems a long way off, however by acting early to integrate the EPC rating into the Adviser Portal, it will help HLP partner firms to remain one step ahead in providing leading edge environmental advice for both residential and landlord clients.

An Enormous Refinancing Opportunity

Residential Remortgage Opportunities

The coming 18 months are set to see huge opportunity in the remortgage market. By the end of 2022, £328 billion worth of fixed rate mortgages will have come to an end, and £205 billion in product transfers are expected to have taken place.

With Bank of England interest rates potentially set to top 4% in 2023, the opportunity increases further, as many households look to remortgage to secure a stable rate for the years ahead. Analysts forecast the value of product transfers to reach £276 billion next year.

The value of residential property remains buoyant as house values across the country continue to rise, with no prediction of a market downturn. The intermediary sector continues to take the lion’s share of the market with 80% of mortgages arranged through advisers.

Lenders typically contact clients 3-4 months ahead of their remortgage being due, and Mortgage Solutions data shows that advisers

lose 60% of their clients to direct lender channels at time of remortgage. To combat this, be proactive and stay ahead of the game, keep engaged with your clients through regular marketing communications and build that relationship early to ensure that you are the first point of call for when it’s time for a remortgage.

Buy-to-Let Remortgage Opportunities

With over 8 million privately rented homes in the UK market and increasing levels of monthly Buy-to-Let (BTL) gross lending during 2022, the opportunities in this sector are becoming even larger.

Data from UK Finance indicates that levels of remortgaging in the BTL sector have increased significantly this year compared to 2021 data, and Oxford Economics forecast growth rates of 9.4% by 2027, with gross mortgage advances potentially reaching between £50bn-£80bn in the five-year period.

It’s certainly a time of growth in remortgaging, as BTL landlords seek greater security in longerterm mortgages to combat rate rises, with fiveyear fixed deals becoming increasingly popular, according to findings by Foundation Home Loans.

Furthermore, environmental regulatory pressures are set to impact the BTL market too, with the UK Government proposal for rental properties to have a minimum EPC rating of C, for new tenancies by 2025 and all tenancies by 2028.

Although details of the proposed EPC rating changes are yet to be finalised, they are likely to create an impact, with BTL landlords having to consider how their existing property portfolio meets the requirements, including financing more efficient properties and whether certain lower-rated properties are sold or face hefty investment and financing to remain compliant with regulations.

Neil Hoare Commercial Director

With a career spanning almost 40 years in financial services, Neil has worked across many well-known lenders and providers, and maintains excellent contacts across the industry, as well as being a key presenter and face of the Network at HLP events across the country. Prior to joining HLP, Neil held senior positions at Personal Touch Financial Services, Select & Protect and Pink Home Loans.

worth of fixed rate mortgages will have come to an end by December 2022

is the forecast value of product transfers in 2023, analysts predict

of advisers lose their clients direct to their lender during remortgage

fixed remortgage deals are becoming increasingly popular, say Foundation Home Loans

A New Consumer Duty

Consumer Principle

A firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail clients.

Cross-cutting Rules

A firm must:

Act in good faith towards retail customers

• Avoid foreseeable harm to retail customers

Enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objective

Four Outcomes

Key elements of the firm-consumer relationship:

1. Products and services

2. Price and value

3. Consumer understanding 4. Consumer support

Upcoming Compliance Changes

Over the coming months, more changes will take place as the Network introduces our approach to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty requirements. At the same time, we will also develop our approach to the updated requirements of the Appointed Representative Regulatory Regime changes, and share further details of how they will impact us all going forward.

These regulatory changes from the FCA are there to protect consumers and evidence a higher professional standard of services provided to them. It’s important to remember that primarily consumers are at the heart of everything we do, and taking a CustomerFirst mentality to business is just good practice. HLPartnership are passionate about implementing these changes to benefit consumers and ensuring that we always do the right thing.

Kay Leslie Compliance Director

As Compliance Director, Kay’s role at HLPartnership is integral to the Network, especially at a time when the industry faces an intense volume of regulatory change and the introduction of Consumer Duty. Kay joined HLP in 2021, bringing a wealth of skills, having held Director roles at several key industry players, and has worked in a consultative role for The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries.

A New Consumer Duty

At the end of July 2022, the FCA set out the final rules and guidance for a new Consumer Duty that sets higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services.

There are three behavioural standards that apply to all areas of a firm’s conduct – act in good faith towards retail customers, avoid causing foreseeable harm, and to enable & support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives.

By introducing the new Consumer Duty principle and rules, the FCA anticipates that the outcomes will be improved clarity and fairness, seeing an end to what the FCA calls ‘rip off prices’. The outcomes are principally relating to products and services, price and value of products & services, ensuring consumer understanding and providing consumer support.

What’s next for Consumer Duty?

To ensure that we meet our obligations by the 31st July 2023 deadline at HLPartnership, we’ve developed an implementation plan to see where the changes will need to be, when we need to deliver the change and how we will manage the implementation. Some obvious areas for change will be:

• Disclosure

• Fact finding

Sales process and tools, customer communications

Oversight and supervision

The Appointed Representative Regulatory Regime Review

Set to be implemented from 8th December 2022, these additional requirements can be traced back to instances of mis-selling and consumer harm identified by the HM

Treasury Select Committee, where it was determined that action needed to be taken to review the current regime around Appointed Representatives (AR’s).

HLPartnership are required to undertake a number of additional checks to each AR firm within the network and before appointment to the network, with enhanced oversight to monitor risks posed to consumers and markets, and checking that each firm has the capability and competency to deliver good consumer outcomes.

The rules introduce greater oversight of the other activities that the AR firm may carry on, introducing a requirement to undertake annual reviews on these third-party activities, business, and senior management to review annual fitness & competency requirements, as well as supplying complaints and all revenue information for each AR firm to the FCA.

Responding to Change

Anticipating these significant regulatory updates, HLPartnership have already started to make several changes to our Compliance structures to help make the transition be as smooth as possible for HLPartnership AR firms.

We’ve increased the number of people in our Compliance Team to handle the additional requirements without risk to our standard response timings and invested in more fieldbased Regional Compliance Managers (RCM) who are there to provide help and guidance on how the changes will affect your business.

We are here to make sure we all deliver good consumer outcomes and keep everyone safe from harm, if you have any concerns or just need to chat something through, please do not hesitate to contact your local RCM.

Enhanced Training & Development

At HLPartnership, training & development is an integral part of the network, providing full support and guidance to all of our members.

We’ve made significant investment in our training provision recently, from growing the team, increasing the range of courses available and enhancing how you can find and take part in the training itself.

Growing the team

We are passionate about learning and development, so to give HLP members the best possible experience, we have welcomed on board several new faces to help provide additional courses and grow the range of training opportunities available every month.

Protection is at the heart of the HLP network philosophy, so one major area of recent development is the recruitment of two dedicated Protection experts, Steve Fallon and Ian Pratt, who are running a range of Protection courses, where any of our members can join and simply find out more about how to have those complex Protection conversations with clients.

Furthermore, there’s scope for dedicated one-to-one training with Steve Fallon, and this includes production of branded videos to help aid Protection discussions.

Becky Baker Training Manager

Heading up the Training Team, Becky has over twenty years’ experience in the industry, delivering training, business development and adviser supervision to a wide variety of businesses, from start-ups to established SME’s and everything in between. Alongside this, Becky has extensive skills in the areas of people management and Later Life Lending.

Expanding the range of courses

When joining the HLP network, there’s a set range of induction courses designed to ensure that everyone has the same grounding in the basic principles, however beyond this, there are a whole range of ongoing training and development opportunities for all members taking place throughout the year.

We’re working hard to grow the range of training available. We have been listening carefully to feedback from our members on what they want, and what they need. As well as in-house training, we work with a range of lenders and providers across the market, reaching out to experts in their respective fields to share industry-leading knowledge, expertise and tips to HLP members.

Recently, we hosted a highly-successful run of sessions covering everything around Buyto-Let lending, and vital information on how Energy Performance Certificate legislation may affect landlords in the future.

Coming up in the months ahead, we’ve got a wide range of courses, covering key industry topics such as working with vulnerable customers, fraud prevention, Trusts and cyber security. Many of our courses also contribute towards member’s Continued Professional Development (CPD), thus presenting a further excellent reason to keep checking the range of courses available.

Where to find the latest courses

HLP

Appoints Second Protection Specialist

HLPartnership is expanding the range of support given to advisers on the important topic of protection. We’re proud to announce that protection expert Ian Pratt joins us, a seasoned industry professional joining us from a distinguished career with Legal & General and Pearl Assurance.

Ian Pratt Protection Development Specialist

Ian has recently joined the HLPartnership team after a long career at both Legal & General and Pearl Assurance. Protection runs through the heart of everything Ian’s been involved in, and he is an instrumental part of the HLP Network’s protection team, helping to educate and inspire advisers on making protection part of the mortgage advice process from the very outset.

Here, Ian takes up his story:

With a rapidly changing world, a volatile economy, and a cost-of-living crisis upon us, never has protection been so important to all of our clients.

I’ve spent a career in the financial services industry helping others, and I’m tremendously excited to join the HLPartnership team, supporting our advisers having those challenging protection conversations with their clients.

As a Network, our goal is to ensure that every client is offered protection during the advice process. However, one of the most common areas of adviser feedback is that many of you find it very challenging to start a discussion on protection, especially when a client is so focused on their goal of buying a home, and protection can merely be perceived as yet another unnecessary expense.

Never has protection been so important to all of our clients.

Powering your protection conversations

We are aiming to tackle this challenge headon, and together with HLP protection expert Steve Fallon, we have already started meeting with advisers across the network to give hands on practical advice on how to broach the topic of protection with clients, backed up by a solid set of tools and materials to give clients all they need to know.

As well as this, I’m also running a set of regular interactive protection webinars, to share some of my experience in talking to clients about protection over many years. Each session is packed full of tips and opportunities for discussion in how and when to talk to your clients about the topic to get them fully engaged and help power meaningful client conversations.

Start your protection journey

So far, we’ve helped a range of advisers at HLP and have been bowled over at reading some of the positive success stories of where our protection advice has been taken on board and used to great effect out there with clients in the real world.

I’d really like to see more HLP advisers take advantage of this knowledge, so I urge you to check out the HLP Courses website and book yourself on our next available Protection session.

Book your place at: www.hlpcourses.co.uk

Protection Is Paramount

You don’t need me to say, but as the FCA’s Consumer Duty regulations draw ever closer, so does the importance offering clients protection options to fit their needs. HLPartnership has always been passionate about protection, and it’s the reason why I’m here, helping our Network’s advisers understand what it means and how they can help their clients.

Letting the facts speak for themselves

Legal & General’s annual ‘Deadline to Breadline’ report reveals some shocking statistics to help reinforce that protection isn’t just the latest industry buzzword, but gives some real and depressing reasons why clients need to be covered for the worst eventualities:

• Without an income, the average working family has just 24 days before the money runs out

• 46% of households list losing their income as their biggest fear Statutory sick pay is just £96.35 a week

Yet believe it or not, the research shows that households are 4 times more likely to insure their pet than their income, and 6 times more likely to insure their household contents. Of those surveyed, only 1-in-10 saw themselves as their greatest asset to protect.

The critical role of advice

Bear in mind that when providing mortgage advice, you have your client’s lives in your hands, should the worst happen. This is why it’s important to give that vital protection advice – think about that uncomfortable search for a client’s protection documents when they’ve contacted you to advise something’s gone wrong, as your motivator for doing the right thing.

Protection advice can seem a ‘difficult sell’, particularly when clients are focused on getting into a new home, a doom & gloom conversation with a cost attached, can be highly challenging.

When providing mortgage advice, you have your client’s lives in your hands, should the worst happen.

HLP can help

We have a range of tips and guides to help facilitate meaningful conversations with clients, right from the start of the advice process, backed up by support materials and videos you can share with your clients to get the message home.

For those cases where you can’t offer protection advice, whether you’re just working on too many cases, or it’s just not for you, why not refer protection advice to our in-house HLProtection. You’ll get a share of commission for every policy taken out by your client, no fears of cross-selling, and the reassurance that they are protected, should the worst happen.

Find out more

Book an appointment: steve.fallon@hlpartnership.co.uk

Interested in referrals? – visit: www.hlprotection.co.uk

Steve Fallon Protection Development Specialist

Steve joined HLPartnership in 2021, after a career spanning 18 years at Legal & General, where he helped Advisers meet the protection needs of their clients. A year into his role with HLP, Steve has already made a big difference to HLP partners, equipping firms with both the skills and materials to engage clients and hold meaningful protection conversations.

Client communication is a key part of an adviser’s success.

HLP to distribute 3 million client communications

Ken O’Callaghan Head of Marketing

As Head of Marketing, Ken’s responsible for spearheading numerous key projects to enhance member experience, including the HLP Business Booster and monthly eNewsletter, as well as significant strategic input into how HLP will continue to deliver for the members of tomorrow. Ken has previously run his own marketing agency, alongside studying for a Master’s degree in Marketing at University of Sussex, and in his spare time is a PGAaccredited golf coach.

This year, HLP are on track to reach the milestone of sending out 3 million client eNewsletters, on behalf of our member ARs.

Client communication is a key part of an adviser’s success, building the relationship over time, especially valuable in the long periods between mortgage and remortgaging. The HLP eNewsletter helps deliver this strategy, engaging clients on a regular basis to strengthen the relationship over time.

Over 230 HLP partner firms are signed up to the service, with over 130,000 clients receiving the eNewsletter every month, alongside the special editions produced for Budget updates and interest rate changes. HLP have received some highly positive feedback from partner firms as a result.

The monthly eNewsletter is formed of four lifestyle and product-related articles, each carefully chosen and prepared by expert writers, packaged up with your firm’s own branding and sent to your clients, together with email contact details allowing your clients to reach out to your firm directly.

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New Client Marketing Campaigns

HLP have just released a new range of materials that your firm can utilise to showcase the value of advice in today’s challenging marketplace. Accessed on the HLPartnership Business Booster, you can find this on the Content Library, entitled ‘The Value of Advice Campaign’.

Engage with your clients

The overall theme of the campaign is to encourage your clients to seek specialist mortgage & protection advice when it comes to buying a home, getting a remortgage or seeking information about protecting their lifestyle.

We’ve put together a range of different materials to suit different platforms, whether it’s banner graphics on social media, content for your website or longer thought-provoking blog articles, and the idea is that they will all work seamlessly together to engage your clients and encourage them to reach out to you for mortgage & protection advice.

Working seamlessly with your marketing

The HLP Business Booster allows you to download these items in a range of different colours, to help you find one that works well with your firm’s own house colours.

Each material is pre-approved by our Compliance team, meaning that you are free to use this to promote to your clients, just as long as you keep to the marketing channel it

was created for – putting social media banners on social media, blog content on a blog page, and using website content only on your website.

Alternatively, you may wish to use the content as a starter point for something truly bespoke – download the content, make your edits, and submit to our Compliance team for final approval.

Immerse yourself in the Business Booster

If you’ve not yet accessed the HLP Business Booster, there’s never been a better time to do so. You can find links from the Adviser Portal. Launched earlier this year, we are building a vast resource of information, whether it’s downloadable marketing features, thoughtleadership articles or self-help guides on running a business, there’s something for everyone.

We update the Business Booster on a monthly basis, so keep an eye out for the latest features dropping in towards the end of each month, and feel free to join our monthly Business Booster webinar where we give an overview of the website, any new content alongside general marketing tips and advice to give your business that extra boost.

HLP Launches Commission System Upgrades

Peter Cobley Finance Director

Having held a series of high-profile financial roles across a variety of industries, Peter joined HLP from Personal Touch Financial Services where he was heavily involved in the refinancing and restructuring of the business.

The upgraded system is several months into usage and already receiving widespread acclaim.

One of the biggest new projects completed this year was the unveiling of some key upgrades made to the HLP Commissions system, rolled out to our members during July.

The result of extensive development and listening to user feedback, the upgraded system is several months into usage and already receiving widespread acclaim from members across the Network.

Listening to member feedback

We changed the way commission statements were viewed, in addition to introducing a number of small incremental improvements to make the entire process easier for members, offering greater flexibility and enhancing visibility of the payments themselves.

The enhancements included the ability to:

Track your commissions on a case-by-case basis

• Download commission statements on demand

• View missing cases

Give access for your admins and administrators

Data On-demand

The new upgraded Commissions system allows HLP members to get their commission statements whenever they wish, cases can be tracked in real time to view their status, and commission details visible as soon as they become available, rather than waiting for a weekly update.

Our new Commissions system uses Policy Numbers and Mortgage Roll Numbers to track each case, so going forward, these are the essential pieces of data that we ask members to input, in order to receive commission on the case, and enable tracking within the system.

Getting the best from the system

We hope that members are becoming more familiar with the new system and the way it works, but if not, then we do have a handy video that talks through the key changes to the system, the new screens presented and an explanation of how it all works.

NEWS FROM HLP

Broaden Your Horizons

Trusted Referral Options for your Clients

We know that it’s a hectic time in the marketplace right now – hurriedly engaging with clients seeking to secure their remortgages and product transfers ahead of repeated interest rate rises, and with a background of ever-increasing regulatory processes to navigate, it can sometimes seem a challenge just completing the bare basics.

Add on top the additional work to ensure that your clients are sufficiently protected, and that you can offer them the variety of services that they’re looking for can represent a significant challenge.

Our trusted partners are here to help

At HLPartnership, we are able to offer a range of trusted referral partners onto which you can share your client details and the teams will get in touch and give the assistance required.

• HLProtection helps clients to be fully protected against the things life throws their way – with a range of life insurance, critical illness cover and general insurance options to protect your client’s lifestyles.

• HL Wills exists to allow you to offer Wills to your clients, expanding the range of services that your business can offer and giving peace of mind that your clients are in safe hands.

• HLP Commercial Solutions facilitates commercial lending, property investment, specialist mortgages and bridging finance for a wide range of scenarios.

Shaun Almond Managing Director

• HLP Conveyancing allows clients access to an efficient online conveyancing service that enables fast communication and digital document signing to give a slick, fast process.

What’s in it for my firm?

By referring your clients to our trusted partners, this allows you time to focus on the areas you do best, and still provide your client with the same high levels of personal service that they’d expect from your firm. Our partners are highly experienced businesses in their own right, with years of knowledge behind each team.

Where applicable, your firm will receive commission payments for each client referred, and we guarantee that there will not be any cross selling of products to your clients after you’ve referred them to our partners.

How can I refer my clients?

The process is quick and simple, all that’s required is a name and contact detail, and they’ll do the rest, getting in touch and offering the professional service that you expect.

If you normally provide these services to your clients anyway, but it’s just a busy time, there is the flexibility to just refer some clients to our firms for assistance, and keep other cases to yourself. At the end of the day, you have full ownership of your clients and whether you choose to refer.

Already, over 100 HLP member firms are referring clients to

and we’ve had some great feedback so far. Find out more about what we can do at the below links:

Upcoming Events

Check out our list of upcoming events! We’ve got a great mix of face to face and digital events planned, so there’s something for everyone. Plus, our events are hosted by our amazing staff and supplier partners, so you’re guaranteed to learn something new.

October

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 26 27 28 29 30

4

BDF: Edinburgh Technology Q&A Just’s Equity Release Workshop

Protection Course Just’s Equity Release Workshop

10

Cybersecurity Made Simple

BDF: Gatwick Protection with Steve Fallon

Technology Q&A 12 13

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Customers

17

Technology Q&A 19 Protection Course Protection with Steve Fallon

SolutionBuilder Training Session Protection with Steve Fallon

22

Fraud Prevention 360 Training Session

Technology Q&A 26 Protection Course

2022 30

Protection with Steve Fallon

November

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Technology Q&A HLP National Conference & Awards

Cybersecurity Made Simple

Protection with Steve Fallon

Protection with Steve Fallon

Trusts Training with L&G

Technology Q&A Just’s Equity Release Workshop

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Customers Protection with Steve Fallon

Protection with Steve Fallon

SolutionBuilder Training Session

Technology Q&A Just’s Equity Release Workshop

Protection with Steve Fallon

360 Training Session

Technology Q&A

Fraud Prevention

Protection with Steve Fallon

Technology Q&A

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

29 30

Protection with Steve Fallon

6

Technology Q&A Protection with Steve Fallon

Cybersecurity Made Simple Protection with Steve Fallon

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Customers SolutionBuilder Training Session

12

December 2022 16 360 Training Session

Fraud Prevention 13

Technology Q&A Protection with Steve Fallon

28 Technology Q&A

Protection with Steve Fallon

15

Protection with Steve Fallon

In this section, a range of HLPartnership’s prominent lenders, suppliers and providers are given the platform to take you through the key topics most talked about within the industry right now, including details of how the issues raised can impact both your business and what they mean for your clients.

Product transfers are a vital tool, especially if remortgage eligibility is squeezed

If you want to give your client the full picture, you need to look at all their switching options, says Nicola Goldie, head of national accounts at Virgin Money.

It’s always good practice to check what’s on offer from your client’s existing lender in addition to their remortgage options.

But, this year, a product transfer could be particularly beneficial, especially for borrowers who could struggle to refinance.

With mortgage rates rising and affordability criteria being amended to account for higher costs of living, some clients could find it hard to borrow what they need with a new lender.

Nicola Goldie Head of National Accounts

The remortgage opportunity

There’s set to be a spike in mortgages coming up for renewal at the end of the year. This maturity spike is a great opportunity for you to help your clients secure a new deal and avoid moving onto their lender’s standard variable rate.

However, if they’ve experienced financial problems due to the cost-of-living crisis (or the pandemic), your client’s remortgage eligibility could be impacted as a result of the rising cost-of-living.

This is all happening in the context of rising mortgage rates on new deals and standard variable rates, so it makes sense for borrowers to start looking for a new rate sooner rather than later.

The average two-year fixed rate was 3.74% in July, 1.40 percentage points above its level in December 2021 (2.34%), and its highest level in over nine years, said Moneyfacts.

Average SVRs have breached 5% for the first time in 13 years, so doing nothing is unlikely to make sense for most clients.

Time for a PT?

When you check out your client’s mortgage options, include product transfers with their existing lender. For starters, they could offer the best and most competitive rate available to them, as well as a raft of other benefits:

Your client should be able secure a product transfer rate early, which means they can lock into today’s rates and protect themselves from future rises.

You already have your client’s details on file and, so does the lender, so there is less admin to do at the submission stage

(although you’ll still want to make sure you’ve considered the client’s remortgage options). With some lenders, including Virgin Money, the switching process can be done quickly and easily online, often with no valuation or legals required.

Product transfers are particularly useful for clients with limited remortgage eligibility, as the lender already holds the risk and doesn’t need to make the same affordability checks.

Many lenders now pay a proc fee to brokers to recognise the work you’ve already put in upfront, advising your client on all their options.

Quick and easy

Your client just wants the best mortgage product for their needs, arranged as quickly and smoothly as possible.

It always makes sense to consider product transfers alongside remortgages.

If their mortgage is up for renewal before the end of this year, make initial contact with your client now.

See if their needs or circumstances have changed, whether they’ll be able to access a new remortgage and how quickly they can secure a new rate with their existing lender in advance of switching.

You can find more information in our product transfer guide. If you’ve got any questions, get in touch with your Business Development Manager.

Landlord looking to boost a property’s EPC rating? How refurbishment buy to let could help

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Can you hear that? No, I’m not talking about the latest video on the hugely popular social media platform. Instead I’m referring to the clock counting down on landlords to make sure their rental properties are as energy efficient as possible.

As I’m sure you’re already aware, the government has said that its preferred policy scenario is that all new tenancies must have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of at least C by 2025, and by 2028 for existing tenancies.

Liza Campion Head of Corporate Accounts, Precise Mortgages

Perhaps not surprisingly, the proposals are having an effect on the behaviour of landlords. According to the latest research from BVA BDRC, just over two in three of them say they are less likely to purchase properties with an EPC rating of D or lower in the future1. In fact, more than 70% have sold a property with an EPC rating of D-G in the last three months2, with half of those thinking of selling in the next 12 months saying they’d choose to get rid of a property with a D-G rating3

So what does this mean for the buy to let market? Well, whilst I think we’ll inevitably see some landlords exiting the market, I do believe it provides opportunities for those who’re prepared to put in the hard yards to bring properties up to the minimum EPC C rating before letting them out.

And if you’re approached by a customer looking for finance to enable them to carry out improvement work, did you know that refurbishment buy to let could be the solution?

Refurbishment buy to let brings together the flexibility of bridging finance with the surety of an exit onto a long-term buy to let mortgage once any improvement work has been completed, providing the property meets the expected valuation following refurbishment.

Precise Mortgages’ new and improved refurbishment buy to let offering offers a choice of three exit products and could be ideal for landlord customers who’re looking to maximise their rental yields and optimise the capital value on their properties, while improving their properties in line with EU Taxonomy and the GFI’s Green Home Finance Principles.

It includes options for landlords who are carrying our refurbishments which include some element of energy efficiency, for

example fitting double glazing, upgrading a boiler or adding loft insulation; as well as those who’re refurbishing a property that already has an EPC rating of C or above, or is awarded a C rating as a result of the improvement work.

Customers can choose between serviced or retained interest payments during the refurbishment stage, and have the peace of mind of knowing that the rate on offer is the rate they’ll get after the post-works valuation.

And as well as benefitting your landlord customers, we’ve also made the process of applying for it as easy as possible. Brokers only need to submit one application, which we’ll key in for them, and will receive support from one expert underwriter throughout the whole case. One valuer will assess the property (where possible) and one conveyancer can act on the application. Finally, two offers will be issued – one for the bridging element and one for the buy to let mortgage.

Raising the minimum EPC rating will improve the conditions for tenants living in rental accommodation, as well as having a positive impact on the environment, so it’s important your landlord customers know that there are products out there that can help them achieve their aims.

To find out more about Precise Mortgages refurbishment buy to let offering, speak with your local business development manager or get in touch with a member of our dedicated bridging underwriting team by calling 0800 116 4385.

Sources: 1 BVA BDRC Landlords Panel Report Q2 2022 (slide 56)

2 BVA BDRC Landlords Panel Report Q2 2022 (slide 59)

3 BVA BDRC Landlords Panel Report Q2 2022 (slide 58)

Forewarned is forearmed

We need to be ready for a leap in the number of borrowers with less-than-perfect credit records, through no fault of theirs.

I have a confession — I’m not the best at household budgeting. I couldn’t tell you how much a pint of milk costs, and it’s some years since I’ve really noticed how much I’ve paid for a round of drinks (Wembley on Cup Final day being a notable exception).

But in recent months I’ve made a conscious effort to use my car less and have started having serious conversations with the family about how to keep our heating bills down this winter.

Because, as we all know, the cost of energy is genuinely terrifying, and still increasing.

I have no doubt that similar conversations are being had up and down the country. The cost-of-living crisis is impacting almost every person in the UK, with inflation already at a 40-year high of 10.1% in August and set to rise.

Economists at global bank Citi warn that inflation could hit 15% in the first quarter of 2023. This may (or may not) be a worst-case scenario, but household finances will definitely be squeezed harder and harder for the rest of this year and into next.

Adrian Moloney Group Intermediary Director Precise Mortgages

Borrowing needs

This pressure on personal finances will impact consumers’ borrowing needs and in the mortgage arena we need to be prepared for how that will play out.

Thanks in part to the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people missed credit payments or unsecured loan repayments last year. In 2021, 848,124 county court judgments (CCJs) were registered against consumers in England and Wales, up 36% from 625,901 in 2020, according to Registry Trust. The figure for the first six months of 2022 stood at 459,819.

These numbers can be expected only to increase dramatically in the next 12 months as households struggle to cope.

On the mortgage front, thousands of borrowers are coming to the end of five-year fixed-rate periods this year, with no interest rate stress performed at underwriting (in line with Financial Conduct Authority guidelines). They will experience payment shock in an environment where interest rates will keep rising for the foreseeable future as the Bank of England tries to combat that red-hot inflation.

Indeed, a whole generation accustomed to sub-1% interest rates is already panicking.

In May, UK Finance was already forecasting a 26% increase in mortgage arrears for 2022 compared to last year, and the picture has darkened since then.

So, as an industry we need to be ready for a leap in the number of borrowers with less-than-perfect credit records, who find themselves in the ‘adverse’ category due to circumstances completely beyond their control.

Reliable system

Brokers will play an essential role for more and more borrowers, who will need their expertise and advice to find the best solutions. So those who have not engaged much in the ‘adverse’ market may want to start familiarising themselves with this growing sector sooner rather than later.

As lenders, we need to provide a comprehensive range of mortgage solutions to suit a wide variety of borrowers with damaged credit records, whether they have recent CCJs, defaults, arrears or debt management plans. And we need to offer these deals via a reliable system that does not require multiple applications, which could further compromise those credit records.

There are tough times ahead for everyone but forewarned is forearmed. As an industry, we need to be prepared — and ready to work together to help our customers through this crisis.

How Precise Mortgages could help

As one of the UK’s leading specialist lenders, Precise Mortgages don’t believe that a credit blip should prevent a customer from getting a residential mortgage.

Our criteria is designed to help those with less-than-perfect credit profiles who may have been turned away by high street lenders.

To find out more about how we could help, chat with a member of our sales team or call our dedicated support service on 0800 116 4385.

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