"Advisers have a critical role in responding to this increased consumer interest and helping to strengthen their clients’ financial resilience, by having more meaningful protection conversations."
The new providers will join existing providers Aegon, AIG, Aviva, L&G, LV=, Royal London, Scottish Widows, Vitality and Zurich.
The Zenith protection proposition offers term assurance, critical illness cover, income protection, family income benefit, private medical insurance, whole of life, relevant life, business protection and group risk.
The new panel will also offer advisers enhanced terms alongside a support package which includes adviser toolkits and calculators, along with videos and webinars to help advisers increase their protection knowledge and skills.
In addition to the expanded panel, PMS has launched a Fair Value Framework for directly authorised firms. This framework will help advisers to demonstrate how the products they have sourced and recommended to their customers through PMS, have undergone thorough due diligence and have been assessed in-line with the FCA’s latest guidance on value within protection and GI distribution chains. This information will assist advisers and their firms if, in future, they are asked to evidence what they have done to embed the FCA’s protection and GI product governance requirements and how they satisfy themselves that the products they distribute represent fair value to customers.
The Zenith protection panel and Fair Value Framework are also available to directly authorised wealth, protection and mortgage firms that are supported by PMS Mortgage Club’s sister-company Bankhall. Over the coming weeks the new expanded Zenith protection panel will also be rolled-out to mortgage and protection firms that are members of Sesame Network.
Ross Liston, managing director of Bankhall and PMS, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted people’s vulnerabilities – both health-wise and financially. Advisers have a critical role in responding to this increased consumer interest and helping to strengthen their clients’ financial resilience, by having more meaningful protection conversations. To fully support advisers, we also wanted to address some of the issues in the protection market that are being driven by Covid-19, such as product providers changing their underwriting criteria and taking different approaches in the current climate. It’s a double-edged sword for advisers – increased consumer interest on one hand, but with protection products in a state of flux, which in some cases is making it more difficult to place business with confidence. Offering increased provider choice through our new Zenith protection panel provides a greater range of solutions to this potential problem for advisers and their clients.”
Jeff Woods, campaigns and propositions director for PMS, added: “All advisory firms offering protection and GI have a regulatory obligation to undertake product governance to ensure the products they distribute are right for their customers. However, some directly authorised firms struggle with this due to limited resources and confusion as to how this can be demonstrated in practice. That’s where PMS is seeking to help, with the launch of our Fair Value Framework. Working closely with our provider partners, we will ensure the products available through Zenith are in-line with the latest regulatory guidance and offer true, ongoing value to the customer. As part of our framework, we regularly request information from our provider partners to ensure ongoing monitoring and oversight of Zenith, so that the products offered remain appropriate for advisers’ needs and continue to offer fair value to customers. After all, the more that customers value their cover, the more likely they are to retain it.”
