With less than a week to go until our Empowering Advice Through Technology (#EATT) conference, I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone about this must see event and that there is still time to acquire your tickets.
During the day, you’ll see leading edge, and in some cases brand new, technology propositions from 7IM, AdviceObjects, AdvisorStream, Estgro, EValue, FE Fundinfo, Fidelity International, intelliflo, InterGen Data, Iress, Philip Calvert, Plannr, Selectapension and VouchedFor.
The demos run alongside a conference programme featuring plenary sessions covering ‘delivering an end-to-end advice & investment management process’, ‘cyber security’, ‘optimising financial planning through best use of technology’ and ‘what makes an outstanding customer experience’.
There will also be a keynote from Ian McKenna on ‘Financial advice in 2025, what do you need to do to be ready?’. Plus, an exhibition area where the companies above will have stands alongside Jigsaw Tree, Origo & TOMD.
Me and Adam Higgs will also be there demonstrating our new ProtectionGuruPro service. If you’re not able to attend and would like to see a demo, you’re welcome to register for our of our webinars.
We kicked off our regular Protection Guru content this week with an insight to mark Stroke Awareness Month and specifically how the condition is covered by critical illness plans. As ever with these insights, we turned to the expertise of our panel of doctors and medical professionals to give an overview of the condition and look at some of the nuances between definition wordings. Critical illness cover and the various conditions covered can be a little daunting, so we hope these insights are a useful educational resource for advisers.
On Tuesday we stuck with the theme of critical illness and this time covered a recent announcement from Scottish Widows regarding their advance critical illness payment benefit. As our insight highlighted, being diagnosed with a critical illness (in this case cancer) can have an immediate financial impact, made all the more challenging during the current cost-of-living crisis. The news from Scottish Widows that they’re increasing their advance payment from £2,000 to £3,000 is therefore most welcome.
For Wednesday’s insight we stuck loosely with the theme of costs and budgeting, but this time focused on income protection and in particular how the defer period can influence the monthly premium. As well as detailing the various options offered by insurers, we also touched upon how increasing the defer period can help reduce the cost, particularly useful for clients working to a tighter budget.
Life and critical illness cover can increasingly be a bit of a minefield, with lots of different options to choose from and different ways of structing the cover. Indeed, this is one of the reasons we’ve created ProtectionGuruPro. To help understand some of the key considerations when recommending life and critical illness cover, Thursday’s insight looked at the differences between life and accelerated or additional critical illness cover.
We finished the week on Friday with another round-up of insights in support of the recent ‘guide to saving protection policies’ published as a collaboration between AMI, the PDG and IPTF. This time we looked at the various support services referenced in the guide and how these can be used to demonstrate the everyday value of protection policies.
AdviserSoftware.Com
Looking at the content we shared this week on AdviserSoftware.com, we highlighted our analysis on the new Finova Solution. We were recently given a full demonstration of Finova’s web-based Practice Management System and Client Portal that are targeted at the mortgage advice sector.
Finally, a friendly reminder that there is still time to register for our upcoming AdviceTech Forum taking place on Tuesday 24th May. During the session we will be examining the implications of the new FCA Consumer Duty Paper and how it will affect customer communications. Attendance is entirely free for advisers, who can book a place here.
