Delivering quality customer service will always be a top priority in the later life lending space, but of course the ability to do that is often out of the adviser’s hands.
We’re all acutely aware there is an overwhelming reliance on other stakeholders, not least lenders and providers themselves, but also valuers, surveyors, solicitors, accountants, and others.
This can be a frustrating journey to go on, not least because of the element of expectation that clients have, the need to often secure money as soon as possible, and the fact that many clients will be going through this process for the first (and perhaps only) time.
Because of that, service levels are under constant scrutiny and, where there are deemed to be hold-ups, there is the temptation to play the blame game.
At our recent ‘Breakfast with Stuart’ meeting these frustrations were evident from a number of advisers, particularly in terms of the length of time it was taking to get cases through the system, and the impact this was having.
I’ve talked recently about – for want of a better phrase – cases being incredibly ‘sludgey’ at the moment, being rather more difficult to get through underwriting, to secure the offer, and then onwards in terms of getting towards completion.
This is now a much lengthier process, and it’s a simple fact of later life lending life that cases are not going through anywhere near as quickly as they did three or four years ago. Indeed, it’s my belief that those days are long gone, and given where we currently are as a market, there seems little hope of them returning anytime soon.
It’s why we are constantly dealing with advisers who are seeing their work-rate on an individual case going up and up. A symptom of our current market is evident in the offer period and the fact that many cases are going beyond a lender’s initial offer and are requiring further action on the part of the adviser.
If they are fortunate, then the lender will be able to extend the offer but this is not going to be the case for all clients, for a number of reasons. It won’t need me to tell you how quickly the capital markets are moving at present; swap rates stand still for no-one which means that it might be impossible for a lender to extend an offer, to continue to sanction the original rate, because their cost of funding has gone up since then.
I know it would make advisers’ lives much easier if the original offer could keep being extended, but that’s highly unlikely, even if there is discretion on the part of the lender and they can provide a few months’ grace. But, as mentioned, given the speed of change to pricing and rates, this is increasingly unlikely to happen, which I’m afraid requires more work for the adviser in order to reassess the case, and see if they can secure a lender/product anywhere near that original deal.
This is likely to be doubly galling for both the adviser and the client, given that it can be service delays within the process – which are out of their control – that are responsible for the offer requiring an extension in the first place.
While not wishing to blow our own trumpet too much, and with the caveat that this is impossible to do for every case, adviser members are welcome to contact us to see if we can pull a few favours with lenders in order to progress a case, before it requires a repeat of the work already carried out. We’ve had advisers do this, and we’ve been able to leverage our position at Air with a number of lender/provider partners in order to get a case moving.
As mentioned, it’s not going to be possible 100% of the time, but where there is a gap we will attempt to go through it on your behalf.
What would clearly help right across the piece here is a far greater focus on technology in the later life lending space. It is a constant source of frustration and irritation to both myself, and I know many advisers, that we don’t yet have one lender offering a fully-online application process, and that we are still reliant on the old methods to get cases seen and offered on.
It’s quite ridiculous that we are still at this point, and while I know a number of lenders are working on this, it does feel like we’re working in a bygone era, especially compared to other parts of the mortgage market.
However, I said I wouldn’t play the blame game here so let’s try to work together, and cut each some slack, but with the added call for service improvement to at least ensure advisers don’t have to keep doing the same work over and over, for reasons that are absolutely nothing to do with them.
Stuart Wilson is CEO at Air Group