The mortgage and insurance network’s firms made 68% more protection applications year-on-year to the first quarter of 2015, up from a 59% increase in mortgage applications over the same period.
The mortgage to life ratio – the number of clients taking out both a mortgage and protection cover at the same time – also rose from 44% a year ago to 50%.
Richard Adams, managing director of Stonebridge Group, said: “We focus intently on providing our AR firms and advisers with access to the best protection, life and GI providers, products and terms in the marketplace.
“Given the increase in mortgage activity last year you might have expected some advisers to put these product areas on the back-burner while they deal with an increase number of mortgage clients, however this is something we do not condone.
“We always encourage our advisers to see the opportunities that exist through diversification and cross-selling and our most recent figures for quarter one show an increasing amount of activity rather than a depression in sales that some firms would have experienced.”
Advisers are profiting from increased activity, as life and protection commissions rose by 79% year-on-year 4.7% on a quarterly basis.
Adams added: “There is always work to be done and our aim is to get our mortgage to life ratio up even higher than 50% however the trend is certainly in the right direction and firms are able to see the increased income that can be generated in this area.
“As we continue to spread the message about making the most of clients’ wants and needs in these sectors we are confident that we can improve this figure even further.
“For us, it is about ensuring advisers recognise the opportunity that exists and how Stonebridge has everything in place in order to help them develop their propositions, create leads and convert them.”
