The service is available until the end of the year and is being offered through LMS. It has been launched with the aim of streamlining the remortgage process.
It is being offered free-of-charge and is available to all brokers submitting business via JMP to any of the 20 lenders on its packager panel.
Lorenzo Satchell, sales and marketing director at JMP, said: “This move is about responsible packaging. While some firms may say they are offering free legals or valuations, often the cost is factored into a higher rate for the client. However, with this offer the fee remains the same for both the broker and the client.”
Anthony O’Callaghan, director at JMP, added: “The perceived cost of providing a legal service is actually less in reality and the services offered by LMS show a highly automated solution that is able to reduce costs.
However, High Nicholls, partner at Bradbury Berkeley Financial Services, questioned the benefit of free services to clients. He said: “There are a lot of plans out there offering free legals on remortgage business, but really it doesn’t mean an awful lot. The intermediary’s job is to find the best deal for their client and this means looking at the bigger picture and not certain aspects of a plan in isolation.
“Free legals are not going to be a deciding factor when searching for the best deal and while it may be an added bonus, it won’t influence a decision. In some cases it can be a nice touch, but I would question how much value it actually adds, especially when in many cases, the valuation can cost more than the legal fees anyway.”
