PruProtect bolsters team ahead of wealth manager push
Chief executive has said push into broader advisory market is one of the company’s core strategies post-RDR.
PruProtect has welcomed former Friends Provident veteran Kevin Watkins to take up the new role of head of wealth protection as the provider pushes into the wealth management market.
Earlier this year, Financial Adviser reported that PruProtect was planning to bolster its services for wealth managers to help more high net-worth advisers incorporate protection into their processes.
The company had pledged to roll out its wealth manager-oriented range this year, ahead of the implementation of the retail distribution review regime.
Hershel Mayers, the chief executive for PruProtect, said it was one of the company’s core strategies to support and work more closely with advisers in the run-up to, and beyond, the RDR.
To this end, he said PruProtect was developing products with the wealth management advisory market in mind as well as recruiting up to 20 more business consultants and increasing its training programmes and marketing initiatives to provide more intermediary support.
He said: “We are also committed to service innovation, with a bespoke high net wealth service, a new underwriting rules engine and innovative technology solutions.”
PruProtect has met its pledge and now has a new team of 20 business consultants, specifically recruited from wealth and investment backgrounds to develop the company’s relationships with wealth management intermediaries in the UK.
The latest hire of Mr Watkins, who has held a succession of senior and board level positions over a 30-year career with Friends Provident, culminating in three years as director of UK individual business, expands PruProtect’s field based account management team in the UK to 160 people.
Justin Taurog, distribution and marketing director for PruProtect, said: “Many advisers are reassessing their holistic offerings as part of their business review in light of the RDR.”