MortgagesOct 20 2023

Later life lending platform improves its tech tools for advisers

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Later life lending platform improves its tech tools for advisers
Technological improvements to Air will help advisers and clients assess vulnerability better and provide greater access to the latest products. (Tran Maurtritam via Pexels)

Later life lending platform Air has updated its adviser sourcing tools, to help advisers and their clients get the best rates and the latest products coming to the market. 

New developments from the platform include a second version of WriteRoute, Air's end-to-end fact find tool, which is branded 'Partner Endorsed'. This new version aims to provide a more structured framework.

It also now has additional questions to help the adviser capture ‘soft facts’ about the customer, such as monthly incomings and outgoings.

As with the original ‘Standard’ version of the fact find, members can still customise the tool with their brand colours and logo.

Additionally, Air has launched a financial vulnerability assessment in WriteRoute with support from digital vulnerability specialist Comentis.

Members can use this to evaluate their clients’ financial vulnerability across four triggers defined by the Financial Conduct Authority:

  • Health events
  • Life events
  • Resilience
  • Capability

Users can also download and print a full report detailing specific circumstances and how these could affect clients, as well as receive guidance on how to implement the appropriate support.   

Another update is that interactive digital loan-to-value and repayment tools from Air can now be white-labelled using members’ own designs and logos.

The tool will give customers an indication as to how much of their property value they could release based on their age and property value. Due to clear demand from advisers for such a tool, Air has developed a quick and effective online solution so that advisers can access the tools they need as soon as possible.

Air has also updated its borrowing forecast tool, which allows users to create a borrowing forecast across different product types, showing how the loan, property value, and equity changes over the life of each loan.

The latest update enables product information to pull directly into the tool from the adviser sourcing results, meaning there’s no need to re-key any information.

The last enhancement to the platform is the introduction of an API health check functionality to its sourcing platform. The API health check indicates any current interruptions to any of the APIs with which Air has integrated, making members aware of any issues in real time as well as providing timescales for fixes.

Mike Taylor, managing director of Air, said: "Our latest round of updates to Air Sourcing testifies to our dedication in providing advisers with market-leading technology to help them support a diverse range of client needs.

“In improving the efficiency and reliability of our tech, we can help advisers increase the amount of time spent actually speaking with clients and finding positive outcomes for their individual circumstances.”   

Earlier this month (October 17), mortgage and protection network Stonebridge announced it was teaming up with Air to boost its technological offering for later-life advisers. 

As reported at the time, Gavin Earnshaw, Stonebridge's operations director,  said following the implementation of consumer duty and the Financial Conduct Authority's review of the later life sector, it was "more important than ever that advisers have all the support to do the best job possible".