Just an update Monday 6th November

Just an update Monday 6th November

This week's headlines: Reminder about December Payment Runs With Christmas fast approaching, we wanted to remind you again of the following deadlines and payment runs around the festive and New Year period: Thursday 21st December 2023 – final invoice calculation for December Friday 22nd December 2023 – final payment run made to the advisers as usual practice for a Friday – DUE TO CHRISTMAS DAY & BOXING DAY, FUNDS WILL BE DELAYED BY TWO DAYS AND WILL CLEAR TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS THURSDAY 28TH DECEMBER Tuesday 2nd January 2024 – final KPI run produced for 2023 and all bankings received between 20th December and 31st December to be reconciled.

Thursday 4th January 2024 – final invoice calculations for December bankings received 20th – 31st December and payment made as usual by 3 day BACS Friday 5th January 2024 Thursday 11th January 2024 – first invoice calculation for 2024 to incorporate bankings from 1st January – 10th January, payment made as usual by 3 day BACS Friday 12th January 2024.

It’s time to craft children’s cover with Zurich Nobody wants to think about what would happen if their child was to fall seriously ill. It’s a difficult conversation to have however, given the financial impact that a child’s critical illness could have, it’s a conversation that needs to happen.

To help make the conversation easier, Zurich have developed a guide just for you that can help you decide the best type of cover for your clients and understand how their children’s cover can be sold alongside adults Critical Illness Cover or Life Cover to give a more comprehensive package of financial protection.

The guide could help you to: • Recognise the long and short-term impacts a children’s critical illness could have.

• Craft a new Personal Protection policy tailored to your client’s needs.

• Understand the different options available as part of Children’s Cover • Find out the benefits of adding Children’s Cover to Life Cover • Learn more about how Children’s Cover can help you meet Consumer Duty obligations.

• Determine the amount of Children’s Cover your client might need You can download the guide here

Find out how The Exeter can help you grow your protection business Did you know The Exeter run weekly webinars on a range of topics covering their life and income protection propositions, value added benefits and objection handling?

If you want to find out how The Exeter can protect your clients and help you grow your protection business, then please do join one of their sessions. Just click the link on the session of your choice to register.

8 November – Healthwise Enhancements 15 November – Income First 22 November – Real Life 29 November – Income Protection Objection Handling 6 December – Income First 17 January – Real Life

Skipton make changes to their Buy to Let Stress Rate Skipton has made the following changes to its Buy to Let stress rate.

For products with a fixed term of less than 5 years, Skipton’s Buy to Let Stress Rate is reducing to 7.60%.

For products with a fixed term of 5 years or more, the Buy to Let Stress Rate remains unchanged at 6.29%.

Take a look at Skipton’s Buy to Let Criteria

Portfolio landlords and the changing rental market In its latest article, One Savings Bank Group Intermediary Director, Adrian Moloney explores the rise of the portfolio landlord and explains how Kent Reliance for Intermediaries could help landlords looking to extend their buy to let business. Within the article you'll learn more about: • The latest portfolio landlord figures • Why it's not all doom and gloom for landlords • Our handcrafted approach to portfolio lending Read the article here

Landbay make rate reductions across its But to Let range Landbay has made rate reductions of up to 0.20% across its product range, including Standard properties, HMOs and MUFBs. They have also reduced rates on their Like-for-Like range designed for landlords with no change to their borrowing requirement, which benefits from an ICR stress test at payrate plus 1% (instead of the standard 2%), which means they now have a 2-year ICR stress rate as low as 5.5%.

All products include variable fee structures for added affordability and flexibility for your clients. Check out their latest Buy to Let range here.

Barclays update - moving from hard to soft credit checks Barclays has revamped the way it completes its Decision in Principle by moving from hard to soft credit checks. This means that all applications will now go through a soft credit check at the initial Decision in Principle stage rather than a hard credit check, as was formerly the case.

This enhancement will help to improve the customer experience when applying for a new mortgage application with Barclays as it will provide you and your clients with an accurate lending decision at initial stage without impacting the customers credit file. This is a change which also brings Barclays in line with other tier one lenders across the industry.

You don’t have to do a thing; these changes have been automatically applied to the system.

Please note that a hard credit check will still be conducted on submission of the mortgage application and recorded on the customers credit file.

Vida enhances affordability with lending into retirement Vida, the specialist lender, have announced the latest enhancements to their products and criteria. The lender says that amid the ongoing challenges related to the cost of living, they want to support borrowers with affordability, enabling extended terms and raising the maximum age for those facing difficulties in securing the most suitable mortgage.

Vida has increased their maximum age at the end of mortgage term to 80 years old. They will consider lending up to an applicant’s 80th birthday based on their current income, where the following three conditions apply: 1. The applicant is under 50 years old.

2. They are at least 10 years from retirement.

3. They are actively contributing to a pension scheme.

Additional applicants outside of this can be considered, but no income will be used for affordability. Repayment needs to be on a capital and interest basis.

Vida have also extended the maximum potential mortgage term from 40 years to 45 years.

Find out more

Rated for Service – have your say on lender service Openwork have teamed up with Mortgage Finance Gazette and Mortgage Strategy to launch the Rated for Service Awards 2024.

The Awards recognise and commend lenders that have performed exceptionally well for brokers, providing lenders with an annual benchmark for service. The inaugural survey last year was completed by over 800 mortgage advisers and provided detailed feedback to help us work in partnership with the lenders to find and drive home improvements in service levels.

Understanding your priorities, recognising service excellence, and identifying opportunities for improving standards is important. The second survey window is now open and gives you a great opportunity to assess lenders’ levels of service and recognise great performance.

The MFG Rated for Service Awards provide an important barometer of your experience, enabling lenders to improve service levels which will ultimately help you deliver better client outcomes.

Take the survey