Online protection adviser Anorak is looking to partner with mortgage brokers in a bid to help sell cover.
Speaking to FTAdviser, David Vanek, chief executive officer and co-founder of Anorak, said there were two ways it could help mortgage brokers sell protection, with partnerships being announced in the coming weeks and months.
He said: “We can either be their protection service so they refer to us their protection clients to our online journey.
“But some [mortgage brokers] have expressed a keen interest in using our digital platform for their own benefit and their protection team.
"So a mortgage broker will use Anorak on a fully white label basis to help their advisers and their clients get the right protection.”
Anorak, which is backed by Axa, provides regulated advice on life insurance, income protection and critical illness cover.
Consumers are invited to answer questions such as their smoker and employment status, before being shown their cover options and quotes.
Vanek said one of the biggest changes the adviser was bringing to what he described as a “very dated” protection market was ensuring people get access to protection advice, but online first.
He added: “Most of the distribution partners we are discussing with - whether they are banks or a digital platform - what they want now is an online-first touchpoint with a digital platform that can help the client go quite far before someone needs to pick up the phone and talk to them.”
According to Vanek, the aim is to make advisers more efficient, as opposed to providing robo-advice.
He said: “We are passionate about advice, and we think that everyone should get access to advice online first and be educated about what type of protection they need.
“It doesn’t mean that because it’s online, it’s online-only. I think we still see and value the human expertise but it should be online first.”
It comes after a panel of protection experts warned that consumers needed a better insurance experience, such as building on technological developments to help reach more clients and make the process more streamlined.
chloe.cheung@ft.com
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