Non-advised life insurance broker Protect Line decided to leave network Tenet to become directly authorised to pursue further growth, according to its founding director Jo Brewer.
Brewer told FTAdviser Protect Line had “outgrown” its appointed representative status and therefore to achieve its growth targets it made sense to become directly authorised.
According to the FCA register, Protect Line became directly authorised on July 30 after it announced its intention to leave the network as part of its full-year results, published in March.
The firm had been part of the network since 2015.
According to its accounts for 2020, revenues grew by 13 per cent to reach £20.4m, while its operating profit hit £1.3m, up from a 2019 operating loss of £83,704.
Brewer said: “As a directly authorised firm we will be able to work more closely with our panel of insurers and have more control over the providers we use together with the products that we distribute.”
She added: “Our passion for people and protection has got us to where we stand today. I’m extremely proud of the passionate people we work with who have helped us protect over 225,000 families in the last 11 years.
“We believe this next step will help us continue to hire further talent, train and develop our colleagues to educate, inform and assist more families about their protection needs.”
A company spokesperson from Tenet said: “While we are sorry to see them leave, Protect Line has achieved great success under our network and their growth has meant it makes sense for them to become directly authorised and we wish them every success for the future.”
Some AR firms have complained about Tenet's 2019 switch to back-office system Intelliflo Office, which has seen users leave in the past. Tenet has said the firms leaving have been outnumbered by those joining.
But this is not something Protect Line had to contend with as they were able to use their own system throughout.
Brewer said: “From the outset of our on-boarding with Tenet in 2015, the size and scale of our business meant we already had an efficient system in place to submit and process our new business which meant we were not required to upgrade to Intelligent Office system when it was launched in September 2019.”
Speaking about its non-advised structure, Brewer believes this is the best fit for consumers at the moment.
She said: “We’re obliged to understand a customer’s circumstances and offer them all the appropriate options, allowing them to make an informed choice about what is best.”
amy.austin@ft.com
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