Mortgage advisers “missed out” on £47.8 million of untapped earnings from failing to provide a home insurance quote to every mortgage client, according to Paymentshield.
Remortgage and product transfers amounted to £10 million alone in lost commission. The analysis is based on UK Finance mortgage data from December 2018-December 2019, intermediary market share and Paymentshield’s own data. The total amount of lost commission for the whole mortgage market amounted to £47.8 million.
Paymentshield says the commission gained from tapping into home insurance sales could generate a significant source of income as mortgage adviser businesses look to get back to growth following the impact of Covid-19.
Paymentshield is aiming to help advisers recoup this lost income by launching a 22% pricing reduction for new remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients, supporting advisers to have more GI conversations on every mortgage.
Emma Green, head of sales at Paymentshield, said: “Having a conversation about home insurance is often not perceived as a priority by advisers, but they are missing out on a huge amount of commission. Remortgage and product transfer clients in particular are often overlooked when it comes to a general insurance conversation.
“We know from our own research that nearly half of advisers (47%) admit to missing opportunities to sell general insurance. When it comes to remortgage and product transfer clients this is because of renewal dates not matching, cancellation fees, or simply because clients perceive their existing policy to be meeting their needs. As a result of Covid-19 more consumers are starting to review the protection products they have, from wills, life insurance, mortgage protection and home insurance – so the benefits of reviewing policies for remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients are also clear.
“We know that it can be hard to compete with internet pricing and even harder to make a customer jump ship before their home insurance renewal is due. For this reason, we’ve not only launched a three-month payment holiday option but we are also offering a 22% discount on our Defaqto 5 Star Rated Home Insurance pricing for remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients.”
Paymentshield’s three-month payment holiday option – which will form part of its permanent proposition – launched at the start of June, and its pricing reductions launch this week and are expected to run until the end of the year.
It is hoped together, these initiatives will help to facilitate the rise in adviser businesses integrating GI sales into their proposition for the first time – a trend that Paymentshield has observed over the past few months. Since April, over 350 adviser businesses that had not previously quoted for GI submitted a quote through Paymentshield for the first time.
Green added: “Some of the home insurance providers we find ourselves competing with actually offer a reduced level of features and benefits compared to a 5-star Defaqto rated Paymentshield policy. This means that there’s a strong chance an adviser will be able to offer their remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients improved cover, whilst also potentially saving them money on their renewal costs.
“We hope that by launching initiatives to help advisers sell more GI, we will significantly reduce that £47.8 million lost earnings figure by next year.”