Technical information provider Protection Guru has reported a 60% rise in the use of its ‘Product Features Report’ service since the start of the year, as advice firms prepare for the Consumer Duty.
From 31 July, advice firms across the UK will have an obligation under the Consumer Duty regulation to assess the value of financial products as pure price-based comparisons. The Product Feature Report service, which has been embedded into Protection Guru’s iPipeline Solution Builder, allows advisers to add quality comparisons of life insurance policies in addition to the more standard price comparisons. It is available free of charge within the Solution Builder software.
Ian McKenna, CEO of Protection Guru, said: “By including the Product Features Report within iPipeline Solution Builder at no extra charge, our aim has always been to help advisers focus on quality and value rather than just price.
“The dramatic increase in the adoption of this service makes it clear growing numbers of advisers are getting prepared to meet the new rules using this service. This demonstrates firms are already embracing changes to their business processes in advance of the 31 July deadline.”
The service provides a wealth of additional data and advisers can choose to select up to five insurers/products to scrutinise for product and value.
In the period from 1 January to 30 April 2023, nearly 20,000 product features reports were generated. Protection Guru said the most popular life insurers included as one of the top five preferred companies named by advisers were Legal & General (56.5% of all product features reports), Aviva (51.2%) and Zurich (42.1 %).
