Another year has brought another accolade for Prudential, as its fine run in Financial Adviser’s annual Service Awards continues.
Having won the Outstanding Achievement award in 2014, the life assurer’s efforts to bolster its excellent customer service over the last 12 months has been recognised by FA readers, who have deemed the firm worthy of the coveted Company of the Year crown.
What is more, the group has won five stars in the investments category for the past seven years, as well as for the past six years in the life and pension category.
Providing a consistently high level of service is somewhat attributable to the provider’s sterling track record at the awards, according to Prudential’s executive director for UK and Offshore Tulsi Naidu.
Ms Naidu said: “We aim to put advisers at the heart of everything we do, and our approach has been validated by the financial advisers who voted for us.
“The awards are a valuable benchmark, which give us an indication of how financial advisers feel about the service we provide. We will remain focused on making improvements to our customer service and simplifying our proposition.”
Prudential has endeavoured to tighten up its long-standing relationship with financial advisers by introducing a host of initiatives aimed at helping planners through challenging legislative changes – not least the RDR.
One example of this is the August launch of a series of seminars, supported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s financial services faculty, exploring how financial advisers and accountants can best provide an integrated source of advice, to better service clients.
Prudential has not shied away from the new challenges facing advisers brought about by the implementation of the pension freedoms.
Ms Naidu believes that the changes are overwhelmingly positive for the adviser market, generating new business as well as the consolidation of existing planner/client relationships.
She added that Prudential has hosted a number of roadshows and webinars, as well as disseminating literature on the subject to guide planners through a relatively steep learning curve.
Last year, the group released Prudential Retirement Modeller, a free online tool allowing advisers to demonstrate to their clients the contributions required to achieve a final pension pot at retirement, or find out the level of income payable and the term it can be paid for.
Ms Naidu said: “We see pension freedoms as an opportunity to engage with people over their long-term finances, and allow financial advisers to have more stimulating conversations with clients.”
What is more, Ms Naidu said that the group has been working hard and invested heavily on producing new solutions to enable people to take full advantage of the pension freedoms.
Prudential unveiled its flexible drawdown option to sit alongside its range of retirement solutions in late 2014, ahead of the reforms.
The product is available through its Flexible Retirement Plan wrapper to customers with a guaranteed secure yearly income of at least £12,000, which can come from a combined range of sources including a workplace pension, an annuity, the state pension and an overseas pension.
