"Good protection advice is an essential part of our customer service ethos, rather than just a ‘bolt-on’ to selling mortgages."
Whilst it’s a very sobering thought, in a way, it’s a real compliment that my clients’ have entrusted me with organising their finances and caring for their family if such a situation arose. But it’s more than an encomium. Because as their mortgage and protection adviser who has, in many cases worked with them for years, I would of course advise their loved ones sensitively and as best possible, to ensure that they suffered the minimum amount of stress at an already awful time.
Fortunately, we’ve only had to do this for a few clients in the twenty years or so that we’ve been in business, but in those cases every time, the protection policies that we had put in place - in some cases decades previously - really came into their own and provided an invaluable lifeline to families suffering from the trauma of losing their nearest and dearest. I was able to liaise with their solicitor on their behalf to assist with the administration of any trusts that had been established, and also manage the administration of the insurance claim and help with any probate matters. All of these are tasks that no grieving family wants to have to deal with on their own, in many cases because a lot of people just wouldn’t know where to start in such a situation.
Likewise, we’ve had other clients who faced serious health challenges and fortunately survived, although due to the severity of their condition, for example a heart attack or cancer, they clearly weren’t able to deal with any paperwork or manage their own claims in the initial stages. Again, my team and I were able to make a real difference by quickly and efficiently dealing with the insurers to ensure that claims were processed as quickly as possible, liaising with mortgage lenders involved to ensure continuity of payment and of course making sure that the immediate families were kept updated at every step to ease the burden on them.
The bottom line is, we’re here to offer our clients the best service we can, in sickness and in health, so to speak. That means ensuring that our approach to advice is both holistic and educational, so that our clients are well informed in terms of what can be done to mitigate potential circumstances by giving them clear and relevant advice about income protection, critical illness cover, life cover and the legal elements which naturally complement them, such as trusts and LPA. We aim to speak to every client at least once a year with the protection arrangements, to ensure that their policies are up to date and aligned with their needs. It’s so much more than simply selling them a mortgage and waiting until their fixed rate has three months before their ERCs expire before we contact them again, that’s for sure.
I constantly say to my team, “If you want to be an exceptional mortgage adviser, you need to make yourself indispensable.” Personally, I take the view that good protection advice is an essential part of our customer service ethos, rather than just a ‘bolt-on’ to selling mortgages. But it’s when your clients tell their spouse or family that you’re the ‘go to person’ should the worst ever happen that you know you’ve done your job properly. And that’s a really special accolade.
