KRS expands into estate planning

Equity release provider Key Retirement Solutions has announced plans to expand into the estate planning sector.

While the company has been building its estate planning team over the last two years, this service was only provided alongside the equity release proposition for referral partners.

However, now the team will be able to work solely on estate planning business for new and existing partners. Services offered include will writing, lasting power of attorney and inheritance tax planning.

“Of the customers we see, 71% don’t have a will in place and of those a further 86% don’t have a lasting power of attorney,” says Key Retirement Solutions group director Dean Mirfin.

“Usually estate planning queries are passed on to a solicitor but how many clients will then follow up and actually set up a will? We need to get people engaged and doing something about it then and there.”

However, Mirfin was keen to point out equity release remains core to Key Retirement Solutions and it has launched an initiative to increase its referral business.

Between now and the end of April any adviser who registers with Key Retirement Solutions will receive one entry into a prize draw to win a Mini Cooper. If the adviser refers a client they will receive a further two entries. If the client proceeds to application then they receive a further three entries into the prize draw. Existing registered individual partners automatically receive one entry.

The incentive runs from January 6 until 30 April with a winner being announced in May.

“We recently received our 10,000th referral and are currently paying out the highest average case value of £750 per case compared to any previous year,” says Mirfin.

“However, we want to encourage advisers to make further strides into the equity release sector and generate new referral partners.”