Adviser / Broking

Royal London has joined Sesame Bankhall's restricted advice panel to provide personal and business protection through Bright Grey, and pensions and retirement products through Scottish Life.

Selling stuff is simple: a need must be identified, a product recommended to satisfy it and someone to sell it who gets paid for doing so. The protection world however is not so simple.

There has been a growing noise across the industry about the ability of the aggressive aggregators to pilfer protection business from financial advisers.

Does RDR apply to protection pricing? This one appears simple. No. Job done. But in reality it isn't that simple.

One London-based adviser has said that an unseen restrictive covenant in a contract with his appointed representative (AR) firm means that he is prevented from working for one of the biggest networks in the country forever.

Advice firms must send the Financial Services Authority (FSA) data on all of their advisers' professional standards by the 29 January 2013.

An IFA firm has partnered with an aggregator and launched its first automated, non-advised proposition for protection business.

AT A GLANCE

The insurance industry needs to "elevate" itself in terms of professionalism, brokers claimed at the recent Broker Expo hosted by COVER's sister title Insurance Age.

COVER recently held a breakfast briefing on international private medical insurance (IPMI) to explore the emerging developments in the sector.