Click targets advisers for new business

An online financial services broker specialising in life cover and secured loans is targeting advisers and mortgage brokers, in an attempt to open up the secured loans market.

Click, which offers life cover and secured loans on a non-advised basis, says more IFA firms are starting to see the potential in the secured loans sector and, as a result it says an increasing number of adviser–broker partnerships are being established.

One of the most recent examples is the partnership between advisory firm Personal Touch Financial Services with Promise Finance to offer appointed representatives (ARs) and directly authorised (DA) advisers access to 'Personal Touch Secured Loans'.

As a result, Click, which is already regulated to sell life cover by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and hopes to extend this to mortgages later in the year, wants to build on its existing relationship with the IFA market by building new partnerships in an attempt to generate around 20% of its business through advisers.

Steve Teague, managing director of Click, points out although it offers a full range of life cover products including critical illness, these specialist sales are low as it operates on a non-advised basis.

He says: “We don’t force these products down people’s throats, in fact the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in its last review were surprised by how few sales we make. We don’t offer advice so if a client is unsure what they want or need, and then we refer them to our IFA partner.”

However to encourage more IFAs into the secured loans sector, Click is offering up to 7% commission for converted loan referrals, depending on the amount of business carried out.

Teague says: “The secured loans sector is a growing area and many brokers see the IFA market as a source of potential business, but many advisers seem unsure of the market either because of a bad reputation, or because they are not quite sure what it is.”

He points out advisers tend to focus on those clients with money, but Teague points out the secured loans sector could be a way for advisers to branch out and help those clients who do not have a £100,000 to invest with other areas such as debt consolidation.

In addition Teague says Click offers advisers a strong technology and internet based solution, with good customer service and clear specialist knowledge of both secured loans and life cover.

He adds: “We have developed an advanced in-house technology solution which enables us to contact the client extremely quickly with a comparison of products from a wide panel of providers to suit their individual circumstances.”

And Teague points out this is beneficial to intermediaries because “the quicker we convert a client to a secured loan account, the faster the adviser can look forward to the commission”.

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