Legal & General has implemented Origo’s Unipass Letter of Authority service across its workplace pensions business, enabling Letter of Authority (LoA) requests and responses to be obtained from Legal & General electronically.
As a digital solution, Unipass Letter of Authority (ULoA) can reduce time and cost in processing requests for advisers and providers, Origo explains. “It enables providers to acknowledge receipt of requests, set delivery expectations for advisers, and respond to these requests with guaranteed secure delivery. This eradicates the need for chaser calls as the status of an LoA request can be seen in real- time. And with Unipass at its core, ULoA is trustworthy, secure, and GDPR compliant.”
Katharine Photiou, MD of the Legal & General Workplace Pensions business says adopting of ULOA is part of the provider’s “passion” fort “tackling industry wide challenges, to ensure we provide our customers with a brighter financial future. The adoption of the Unipass Letter of Authority service is another step in our ambition to utilise digital capabilities to drive a quicker, more efficient and consistent experience, as well as reduce carbon footprint by limiting the use of paper.”
Anthony Rafferty, CEO Origo, says the development of ULoA was “to help the industry deliver a faster, cheaper and better experience for advisers and their clients. Moving to a digital LoA creates efficiencies and consistency throughout the process and helps providers deliver a more cost effective and carbon-friendly process.
“It also helps providers conform to Consumer Duty, avoiding the potential of creating ‘foreseeable harm’ as well as delivering a significantly better service for the end client. In a fully outcomes-focussed regulatory environment, finding ways to put the best interests of customers first, is now de rigueur for the industry.”
In October Skipton Building Society’s financial advice arm called on the industry to adopt Unipass Letter of Authority, to help speed up market processes and create better outcomes for customers across the board.
A recent piece of joint research by Origo/lang cat into LOA processes in the market – LoA Process: Just Fix It Already – highlighted the issues advice firms continue to face when submitting LoAs to providers and why going digital is the way forward for providers, by helping to support financial advisers and their clients while also improving their efficiencies and reducing costs.
