Retailer: Asda teams up with adviser firm
Asda has become the first supermarket in the UK to offer protection products with advice after the firm joined forces with LifeSearch.
Asda Life Service will be available from 29 January.
Life insurance, critical illness, income protection, family income benefit and whole of life insurance will be available in addition to advice on potential use of trusts. The service will be available online and over the phone.
Gev Lynott, director of Asda financial services, said its focus was on offering customers the widest range of choice at the best price, which can now be extended.
He said: "Through our new free service we are able to fully assess each customer's needs in a regulated environment, and offer them advice on what financial product will best fulfil their needs."
Tom Baigrie, managing director at LifeSearch, said: "Protection is both more important and more complex than most consumers realise." He added that it had always been the company's aim to deliver low-cost independent advice to the mass market.
Coincidentally, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has appointed five industry figures to lead a working group of its Retail Distribution Review aiming to "identify market solutions to core problems within the retail investment market," according to an FSA statement.
The LifeSearch/Asda deal was announced after Scottish Widows decided to cease selling life insurance through the supermarket. Johnny Timpson, head of protection development at Scottish Widows, stated that the agreement would end on 28 January when LifeSearch would take over.
