This move is intended to create the most compelling technology offer for protection products in the market.
Protection specialist UnumProvident has joined the Income Protection Comparison service, meaning that the products on this service now cover the majority of business written by Assureweb users. The inclusion of Synergy’s Protect product further enhances the Term Comparison service, with fifteen providers now live. Products from a third specialist provider are also being added to both services on a distributor-by-distributor basis.
The move comes at a time when Assureweb can also reveal a 70 per cent uplift in users on a year-on-year basis, to the end of October 2005. This success has largely been driven by winning major distributor customers, such as Barclays, Lighthouse and Park Row, from rival portals. Assureweb now has over 21,000 users who have either accessed the portal, or have registered in the last eighteen months. A further two major distribution deals are to be announced shortly.
Assureweb’s director of sales & marketing, Stephen-Wynne Jones said: “Unveiling these three specialist providers, highlights our dedication and commitment to improving the choices available to the modern protection specialist. Protection products have always been at the very heart of what we offer, but the addition of Synergy and UnumProvident takes us to the next level in a market where more and more advisers and major distributors are switching to our award-winning portal.
“Enhancing our protection proposition, recent high-profile distributor deals, and staying ahead of our competition, signals our intent to raise the stakes in the portal arena. We’ve also seen a greater degree of interest from some of the more specialist providers who, for the first time, want to support our service, adding a new dimension to Assureweb.”
Richard Simon of Synergy Protect said:
"By joining Assureweb, we have ensured that the significant number of intermediaries using this award-winning portal will now have access to Synergy Protect. This is one of a number of significant developments we are currently undertaking, and further demonstrates our commitment to the intermediary market".
