Scottish Widows is the latest insurer to launch its income protection product on Iress’s The Exchange platform.

The new IP product is in addition to Scottish Widows’ existing product offerings on the portal.

The Exchange is a widely-used online sourcing platform for financial advisers in the UK, particularly in the life insurance market.

It allows brokers to compare and source various insurance products, including life insurance, critical illness cover, and income protection, from multiple providers.

Scottish Widows’ protection director, Rose St Louis, said: “Our goal is to help people to be better prepared financially if they were not able to work.

“Our new IP product is the next step on our mission to help people build their financial resilience and make it easier for advisers to serve more of their customers’ needs with a streamlined process and slicker experience through tech partners like Iress.”

Iress’s global head of product for sourcing, Jacqui Durbin, added: “As long-standing partners of Scottish Widows, we’re delighted to support its launch into the Income Protection space through our extensive distribution network on The Exchange.

“It also supports our commitment to offering the broadest range of products to brokers and advisers.”

THE popular Coca-Cola Christmas truck will return this year for another festive tour.

The iconic red vehicle will travel around towns and cities across Great Britain in the run up to Christmas.

1

The 2024 tour promises to be ‘bigger and better than ever’ and will be set in a magical winter wonderland.

Visitors will be able to take part in festive games and a lucky dip which will give them the chance to win exclusive Coca-Cola merchandise.

A food truck will serve up seasonal food and ice-cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar drinks.

Meanwhile, a canopy of twinkling lights will help you to capture the perfect winter selfie in front of the iconic red truck.

The exact schedule for the tour has not yet been published but announcements will be made on the @CocaColaGBI Instagram account and @CocaCola_GB X page.

Where did the truck stop last year?

Last year the red vehicle made stops across the UK in many large cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester.

It also made stops on the following dates:

• Crown Steet, Glasgow, November 23
• Silverburn Shopping Centre, Glasgow, November 24
• Fort Kinnaird Shopping Centre, Edinburgh, November 25
• Metro Centre, Gateshead, November 26
• Leeds White Rose Shopping Centre, November 30
• Liverpool One, December 1
• Trafford Centre, Manchester, December 2
• Meadowhall Shopping Centre, December 3

Large crowds flocked to see the vehicle, with some waiting for more than an hour to take selfies with the festive favourite.

Among those joining long queues were many parents with excited children.

The destinations could change this year so keep an eye out for announcements in the coming weeks.

What if I miss it?

This year fans of the fizzy drink who won’t be able to see the truck in person don’t need to worry about missing out.

From November Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Coca-Cola Original Taste customers will be able to scan a QR code on the pack for the chance to win one of hundreds of festive gifts.

Among the top prizes are pre-loaded £200 ‘Festive Feast’ gift cards.

Coca-Cola has also partnered with charity FareShare again this year.

It will donate a meal on behalf of every person that visits the Christmas Truck Tour.

Florence Wheatley, marketing manager for Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: “Coca-Cola has and remains synonymous with Christmas, with many people eagerly awaiting the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck Tour and Holidays Are Coming advert to create a little festive magic.  

“This year, we’re delighted to continue our relationship with FareShare to support its mission to reduce hunger and surplus food waste.”

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

When I enquire of Karen Barrett what she likes doing outside work, her answer is somewhat surprising: “I love knocking down walls.”

This, it turns out, is part of a wider interest in property renovation, but her response makes a change from ‘socialising with friends’ or ‘going to the cinema’. Then again, there’s a lot about Barrett that makes her stand out.

The founder and chief executive of Unbiased, the UK’s leading platform connecting people to financial advisers, oversees a business that works with more than 27,000 advisers and manages over £80bn in assets.

In the 15 years since its launch, it’s estimated that Unbiased has helped 10 million people access the right IFA, while also facilitating other crucial services such as mortgage brokerage and accountancy.

I had noticed that advisers were brilliant but often struggled to get their brand in front of the right customers

Pretty impressive for someone who started out with a team of just five and scant knowledge of how to run a business.

As she admits, “Google was definitely my friend in the early days, but you’ve just got to have a go.”

Getting started

As a child, Barrett was “quite good at a number of things”, but she never had a clear idea of what she wanted to pursue as a career.

Graduating from Newcastle University with a degree in economics and marketing, a natural flair for communication and creativity led to a job with Mortgage Express, then part of Lloyds TSB.

“I loved working there,” she claims. “They pioneered products such as buy-to-let, self-cert and buy-and-build mortgages.

“I set up their first internet connection in 1999, which was also my introduction to the internet. At that stage, it was all dial-up, waiting for ages to connect, but I realised you could put brochures, content and information online for people to consume — all quite revolutionary.”

I’d like to see targeted advice become more accessible, especially for those who aren’t served by the market

A move to Abbey National (now Santander) followed, and then onto IFA Promotion, where Barrett stayed for a decade, working her way up to become marketing director. It was this experience, she says, that gave her “a real understanding of the financial advice sector, and the consumer and professional pain points”.

Her experience in different-sized companies also convinced Barrett that she preferred smaller teams and a more autonomous environment.

“Now I run my own business, it’s interesting to see that the seeds were always there. When I was at Mortgage Express, there were only about 150 people and you were allowed to just go ahead and do things. I enjoyed the autonomy.”

A personal journey

However, it wasn’t just a desire for independence that spurred Barrett to set up Unbiased in 2009.

That same year, her second child was born with a heart condition, which led to the family spending several months in hospital.

It’s about generating value for employees and customers, and delivering on your promises

“It was only then I realised that I hadn’t made any financial plans for such an eventuality,” remembers Barrett.

“Despite advising others, I hadn’t taken my own planning to heart. And it made me realise that I needed an adviser who wasn’t just someone my parents had used.

“My son is fine now, but that experience gave me the push to go all in with Unbiased. Once you face something so personal, you think, ‘Why not? I’ll find another job if it doesn’t work out.’ It gave me the confidence to pursue it fully.”

Fulfilling a need

Barrett realised that, for both clients and advisers, there was a gap in the market that her new company could fill.

“Throughout my career, I had noticed that advisers were brilliant but often struggled to get their brand in front of the right customers. And, on the consumer side, people often didn’t realise they needed advice or assumed it wasn’t for them.

As we’ve grown and hired more senior people, having a laser focus on metrics has become crucial

“I recall a research group with these ladies aged 60–70. None of them had taken pension advice, despite having had good careers. They’d taken advice from people like their son’s friend, who was a bank manager, but not from a qualified adviser.

“That experience made it clear there was a place for Unbiased — connecting clients looking for the right adviser with advisers seeking a good, consistent flow of quality enquiries to help plan their business.”

Barrett’s previous roles had also taught her the importance of technology, when building Unbiased. From the start, the firm embraced data-led processes to make the adviser and client experience as efficient as possible.

“That’s where the Unbiased algorithm was born — learning from a few pieces of data to match people with the right adviser.

“Our platform has evolved from there to offer a full conversion tool that tracks client interactions, nudges customers and integrates with CRM systems, providing data insights about successful enquiries.”

We’re a marketplace business, so we have to keep the clients happy while also satisfying our paying customers: the advisers

Crucially, it’s the volume of traffic that has enabled the business to become more precise, creating different journeys for different advice needs. This, in turn, has driven growth — over the past few years, Unbiased has delivered around £20bn in assets under management to its adviser customers, 75% of which is new to the industry.

Learning on the job

For all her success, however, Barrett’s journey hasn’t been an easy one. She emphasises that “resilience is key” when starting and running a business.

“You have to dig deep and keep going. It’s not easy, especially when you’re trying to achieve a lot with limited resources.

“Our business now has about 90–95 people, with specialists in all sorts of fields, from PPC [pay-per-click] to SEO [search engine optimisation]. But, when you’re starting out, you face constant challenges with money, time and people.

I knew I wanted a good business with a strong brand, happy customers and a healthy environment

“Also, you don’t know what you don’t know, so you make decisions based on the data you have at the time, and later you look back and wonder, ‘What was I thinking?’

“You’ll always make mistakes, but hopefully you won’t make the same one twice.”

Although Barrett found herself, at the start, “looking up even the most basic things”, she took inspiration from those around her.

“Networks are really important,” she says. “In general, I’ve found the financial services industry to be a fantastic network of people who are happy to share their knowledge. You learn as you go.

“For example, I remember going on holiday and reading a book called Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. It feels overly structured and staid now, but it inspired me to think about how I could make what we had bigger and bring it to more people.”

I recall a research group with these ladies aged 60–70. None of them had taken pension advice, despite having had good careers

Unbiased raised funds in late 2019 and again in 2022 as the business grew and expanded to the US. This enabled Barrett to hire an experienced chief operating officer, and she describes having someone to bounce ideas off as “invaluable”.

“Initially, I was working alone, which suited me because I’m independent anyway — I don’t need to be constantly checking in with anyone. But it was a real benefit to find people who were happy to pay it forward and to give you a bit of time.”

Important lessons

Even with more support around her and a thriving company, Barrett faces challenges every day, some of which are inherent to Unbiased’s model.

“We’re a marketplace business, so we have to keep the clients happy while also satisfying our paying customers: the advisers,” she points out.

“There’s always a tension between the two. We spend a lot of our marketing budget targeting clients, but our revenue comes from another party entirely.

On the consumer side, people often didn’t realise they needed advice or assumed it wasn’t for them

“It’s all about finding the right balance.”

When I ask her to identify the most important factors in running a business, she highlights three things: people, numbers and usability.

“People first of all, because you can’t do it without people, and you certainly can’t do it alone. I have a team of seven with whom I work closely daily, and we have regular meetings to check in on our KPIs [key performance indicators] and plan ahead.

“One of the things I’m proudest of is that our employees genuinely love working with each other. We’ve got a chief people officer and, if you look on Glassdoor, you’ll see we’re quite transparent. It’s about being one team with one dream.

“Second, the numbers. As we’ve grown and hired more senior people, having a laser focus on metrics has become crucial — whether it’s revenue or growth or Ebitda or whatever. You need to identify those North Star numbers and be on them all the time. And, if you’re wavering off them, how are you getting back on?

When I was at Mortgage Express, there were only about 150 people and you were allowed to just go ahead and do things. I enjoyed the autonomy

“Last, there’s usability and the health of the overall business. Before we secured investment, I didn’t always know exactly what I was aiming for, but I knew I wanted a good business with a strong brand, happy customers and a healthy environment. So, we keep an eye on competitors, but mainly in terms of how close they’re getting to what we’re doing.

“It’s about generating value for employees and customers, and delivering on your promises.”

Forging forward

On the adviser side, Unbiased is working with larger advice businesses and has partnered with brands such as Canaccord, M&G and PensionBee, to help advisers adapt to the increasing demands for efficiency and growth.

“We’ve seen a lot of private-equity investment and consolidation in the market,” says Barrett. “That’s definitely focused advisers’ minds on getting consistent streams of new business so they can grow at a regular rate.

Google was definitely my friend in the early days, but you’ve just got to have a go

“This has led them to our platform, where they can plan what type of customer they want to onboard and with what regularity, then support their efficiencies and pro-growth targets. That’s really driving business for us.”

For Barrett, making this process ever more granular is the key goal. The platform, she says, is “very much a vertically integrated funnel, and those integrations are getting stronger all the time”.

She adds: “The vision would be to have one view of a customer, their likelihood to convert, and an understanding of the length and level of investment.

“So, looking at the data, what will we have delivered to them in five or 10 years?”

It’s clear that the success of Unbiased owes a lot to this attention to detail. But what about the 92% of people who don’t receive any financial advice at present?

“There’s clearly room for growth,” agrees Barrett.

“I’d like to see targeted advice become more accessible, especially for those who aren’t served by the market.”

When I tell her that becoming a parent last year made me think more profoundly about my financial future, she seizes on this.

Despite advising others, I hadn’t taken my own financial planning to heart

“We see people like you a lot — those who suddenly become more responsible when they become parents. They need life assurance, a bigger mortgage or savings.

“We love creating journeys for them on our website, guiding them through typical life events.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about connectivity.”

On that reassuring note, we shake hands and I head back out to the London streets.

If our conversation is anything to go by, “knocking down walls” is more than just a hobby for Barrett.

This article featured in the November 2024 edition of Money Marketing. 

If you would like to subscribe to the monthly magazine, please click here.

RENTERS have admitted they rarely consider bill costs before moving – leaving 76 per cent shocked and stung by fees.

A poll of 2,000 tenants found 54 per cent rushed through the process to move in as soon as possible, prioritising location over the heating and energy costs.

2

2

Advertisement

But now 46 per cent feel they have no control over their bills, leaving 34 per cent cutting back elsewhere to afford them and 17 per cent feeling helpless at home.

And 24 per cent have even considered moving elsewhere due to the costs getting out of control.

Prior to picking up the keys, 51 per cent didn’t get much or any information from the landlord about how much they would likely have to pay for these essentials.

What’s more, 21 per cent are contractually prohibited from changing their energy supplier, with nearly half not realising this when they signed their lease.

This has left 36 per cent taking matters into their own hands by carrying out tasks to make their property more energy efficient – despite potentially breaking their tenancy agreements.

Paul White, commercial director at DIY store B&Q, which commissioned the research, said: “The research shows tenants are taking matters into their own hands, trying to improve energy efficiency in their homes – even when rental agreements typically limit what they’re allowed to change.

“Of those looking to make small but effective changes, there are a few low-cost solutions that are unlikely to breach rental agreements.

“Adding radiator reflectors to direct heat back into the room and using heavy curtains can help keep in warmth.

“These minor adjustments can make a real difference and provide renters some control over their energy costs, even if their property isn’t perfectly insulated.”

Of those who have made energy improvements around their rented home, 42 per cent have bled the radiators, and 39 per cent have installed draught seals around doors and windows.

A quarter (25 per cent) have insulated pipes and 23 per cent went as far as insulating the loft.

Half (53 per cent) of renters surveyed wanted to make these changes to stop energy bills spiralling out of control, and 44 per cent wanted to address issues with heating and cooling certain areas of the home.

But for 35 per cent, their DIY was driven by an eagerness to reduce their environmental impact.

The research, conducted via OnePoll, also found that there’s more renters can do to protect themselves before moving into new homes.

In fact, 69 per cent aren’t likely to check the age of appliances, while 67 per cent doubt they will inspect for draughts.

And 63 per cent are even unlikely to check the EPC rating of the next potential property.

Paul White from B&Q added: “Renters and homeowners alike can feel that they are unable to take control of their household bills.

“We have plenty of energy efficiency solutions, from thermostatic controls to draught excluders, which can help make it easier for customers to control and reduce their energy use, and to keep their bills from becoming overwhelming.

“As a first port of call, I’d recommend visiting our Energy Savings hub at diy.com for free tips and advice.

“Here, people can also take advantage of our free Energy Saving Service, offering personalised advice on the steps they can take to improve the energy efficiency of their home.”

Since the Financial Conduct Authority moved to a portfolio supervision model, this portfolio strategy letter has emerged as the most relevant communication for our sector.

While the Business Plan is still essential reading, the portfolio strategy letter gives more sector-specific insight, including what the FCA’s priorities are and, crucially, what its expectations are of advice firms.

It’s great to read that the regulator is looking to increase its industry engagement with an acknowledgement of the insights this can bring. At the same time, it is important all firms are on top of the FCA’s communications.

There will be no excuses if the FCA subsequently finds issues within the retirement income advice or control framework

Although only three pages long, there is a wealth of information contained within the hyperlinks to keep us all busy. Here are some of the key headlines and actions firms should be taking:

1. Retirement income advice

Since 2019, when the FCA announced its second quality of advice review would focus on retirement income, it has been clear this is a major area of emphasis. Since then, the FCA has completed and released the findings of its thematic review of retirement income advice.

Leading with this subject again indicates it was not satisfied with the overall findings from its review.

Consolidators should review their business plans, strategy documents, policies and procedures

With the Dear CEO letter that accompanied the findings of the thematic review, chief executives were written to three times in under two years about the importance of their firms ensuring retirement income leads to good customer outcomes. There will be no excuses if the FCA subsequently finds issues within the retirement income advice or control framework.

Having clearly set out its findings and expectations in relation to areas such as know-your-customer information, risk profiling and cashflow modelling, it is essential firms can demonstrate they have gone through the FCA’s report and can confirm what action they have taken to satisfy themselves that their customers are receiving good outcomes.

2. Ongoing advice services ­­­

Our sector has been discussing ongoing advice reviews all year. In fact, this focus almost overshadowed the findings from the FCA’s thematic review of retirement income advice in March.

While we await the findings from the FCA’s thematic review of ongoing advice later this year, there is still more firms should be doing. This includes reviewing their fair value statements to ensure they demonstrate their service provides value for clients.

CEOs were written to three times in under two years about the importance of their firms ensuring retirement income leads to good customer outcomes

It’s also important to review your ongoing advice policy to ensure it clearly confirms the services clients will receive, the disengagement process and the process for paying refunds where services are not delivered in accordance with the client agreement.

Firms should also ensure they monitor their ongoing advice service appropriately. Historically, business assurance has focussed on new business but, with the vast majority of clients receiving ongoing advice, this needs to be a key focus of business assurance going forward.

3. Much-anticipated consolidation review

Consolidation has been a key feature of our sector for many years. Given the FCA’s last thematic review was in 2017, it is no surprise to read it is planning thematic work in this area.

With the vast majority of clients receiving ongoing advice, this needs to be a key focus of business assurance going forward

Consolidators should review their business plans, strategy documents, policies and procedures, including integration plans and management information, in advance of the thematic review. It is important to be able to demonstrate clients are receiving clear communication and good outcomes.

The FCA has explicitly stated firms should undertake adequate due diligence on client books. With its key priority of reducing and preventing serious consumer harm, it is important firms can demonstrate the work they have undertaken where the due diligence on the client bank and more general due diligence identifies concerns.

David Boyhan is technical director at TCC