The awards were designed to reward retention of protection clients rather than just a strong sales performance.
The overall winner in each category was:
• Best Business Practice - Mortgage Advice Bureau
• Best Special Recognition - Personal Touch Financial Services
• Most Improved Performance - Thameside Associates
• Best Reinstatement Performance- Top Quote Ltd
Duncan Crocker, managing director of the L&G network, said although advisers were getting better at looking after clients after the point of sale there was still a long way for the industry to go.
He said: “Now that new customers are harder to come by, now that people’s disposable incomes are more squeezed – how good are both manufacturers and distributors at going back to people and establishing that lifetime link?”
He said advisers should be thinking about looking after the customer after the point of sale but that this would also deliver a more sustainable business for them.
“Making a sustained margin in UK financial services distribution is hard. Every pound of commission not reclaimed is worth more than a pound of commission earned,” he explained.
“The reason being you’ve almost certainly discharged more cost within your business to get that pound of earned commission already. That realisation has driven many businesses towards better business practice but I wish other businesses would also realise this.”
Dev Malle, sales and marketing director of best special recognition award winner PTFS, added: “It’s a credit to L&G that they have been the first to launch awards that recognise quality.
“The protection market has been guilty of getting into bad habits and it takes the public stance to recognise that we should behave and manage our customers so they get the best deal possible – not the person advising them.”
And John Pollock, group executive director of protection and annuities at L&G, said: “We’re the biggest seller of protection and we’re proud of that but we also want to be the best.
“Being the best means serving our customers in our communities to the best of our ability. We sell a promise that if something bad happens to our client or their family we will be there to support them financially.
“If we’ve sold that promise and let that evaporate so that clients no longer have that cover after five or six years then we’re not fulfilling it.”
