Financial and insurance solutions provider iPipeline has launched a tool giving advisers working in the protection field the ability to display multiple cover options to the open market.
The tool, called Solutions Builder includes multi-benefit and matrix-based single product comparisons, supporting upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
The firm said it aimed to provide a faster, more efficient way of reviewing a client’s protection needs so the right solution can be found more quickly, based on the client’s budget and needs.
The product was originally launched in January this year in partnership with Openwork and was exclusive to the adviser network’s client management system.
The open market launch of Solution Builder comes with new and enhanced functionality including a client dashboard – allowing easy access to client quotes, a store of clients’ full history for future reference, and access to indicative prices across multiple cover options in a single view.
Other notable features include links to iPipeline’s integrated indicative underwriting tool XRAE, which the company has said allows advisers to set expectations up-front in the sales process.
Ian Teague, managing director for iPipeline UK, said: “In January 2015, we launched Solution Builder with Openwork and in the first month it saw a significant increase in both average monthly premiums at 10.8 per cent and average benefits per client at 17.9 per cent, clearly showing that the solution does not only accelerate adviser businesses, enabling them to become more profitable, but also helps to close the protection gap, as consumers are better covered.”
Adviser view
Kevin Morgan managing director at Consilium Financial Planning Limited, based in Hertfordshire, said: “I do not know a great deal about the product, but the concept sounds reasonable and I am sure it is something we could look into.
“Comparing protection products is not necessarily hard, but it can be incredibly time-consuming, particularly when it comes to critical illness.”
