Air has announced that Aviva will be joining its group of Air Select Ambassadors for 2024, with Standard Life Home Finance and Legal & General Home Finance also being confirmed as permanent members.
These Select Ambassadors will support Air member firms in a range of critical areas, providing practical support with the advice journey, driving product innovation and helping to implement tools for navigating the evolving market with safer tracks for the mortgage industry.
The panel of lenders will act as strategic partners supporting the implementation of the changes following the FCA review of the later life sector in 2023 and the Air Comprehensive Conversations Manifesto. Air Select Ambassadors will be on the front line with Air to create change in the industry to enable advisers to provide better customer outcomes.
Aviva joins existing lender Ambassadors, Legal & General Home Finance, more2life and Standard Life Home Finance, who will now be a permanent member, and will be supporting Air members with the advice journey and contributing as thought leaders to drive the evolution of the later life lending industry.
By working closely with the panel, both members and lenders receive better terms; lenders will have access to support the Air member base, whilst members will benefit from a broad range of products and expertise from trusted lending partners.
Mike Taylor, managing director at Air, said: “Our Air Select Panel of lenders is a great way for everyone involved to receive better terms, with lenders gaining exposure to our sizeable adviser base and members having access to a wide range of products.
“At a time when products are rapidly entering the later life market, forming collaborative working relationships and strategic partnerships like this is key to ensuring that advisers also have easy access to the kinds of expertise they need to best support their customers. We are delighted to bring Aviva into the Select Ambassador panel and firm up Standard Life Home Finance as a permanent member.
“A key part of this collaboration is also about driving forward positive growth in the industry, especially towards safer tracks and better customer outcomes. The Select Panel will work with our members to ensure they are able to have comprehensive conversations and consistently placing affordability at the heart of the sourcing process, with benefits for all our members and lenders.”
Matt McGill, managing director at Aviva Equity Release, added: “We are delighted to take a position on the Air Select panel, and the opportunity this gives to continue valuable work towards bringing best outcomes to customers in the later life lending market. This is the biggest priority for all of us in this industry.
“We look forward to participating with Air and the other Select panel lenders in supporting advisers, through ongoing training and development of support materials, which in turn will ensure that customers are served to the very highest levels, with personalised solutions suitable to them and their circumstances.
“To the same end, we support Air’s ambition to improve outcomes and protection for retail customers through the Comprehensive Conversations manifesto.”