Written by Michelle Westley, Head of Marketing
Working with a specialist distributor not only means you’re able to leverage our sector expertise across different areas of specialist lending, but it also gives your clients access to a wider choice of lenders than you might otherwise be able to work with. And this could help you to maintain your obligations under the new Consumer Duty regulations.
Specialist lending can be complex. Criteria is key and, while many lenders publish the main elements of their policy, there are often situations where a lender might take a view on a particular case. Understanding the appetite of different lenders for different circumstances requires experience working with them on a regular basis. And so many brokers choose to select a small number of specialist lenders they can get to know and work with in order to meet the needs of their clients. However, while this approach might deliver a solution for your client, does it deliver the best solution?
Consumer Duty puts much greater emphasis on brokers doing everything in their power to deliver the best possible outcome for the whole lifecycle of the product they recommend. If there is a product that might be more suitable for your client, but you haven’t considered it because it’s offered by a lender you don’t know, then you risk breaching your duty of care.
So, working with a specialist distributor, that has a working knowledge of a wide group of lenders, opens up more options for your clients and can put you in a stronger position to meet your obligations under Consumer Duty. Our sector experts can discuss, in detail, the broad range of options, and work with lenders to identify the best solution for your client.
Specialist distributors also have access to exclusive products, and sometimes even lenders, that are not available directly to brokers. Sometimes these exclusives may be a slight reduction in the rate or variation in the fee structure. But there are often situations where a lender may have limited funds for a particular product and so might choose to control the distribution of that product through its specialist distributor relationships.
If you have access to a product through a specialist distributor and you overlook it when researching the options for your client, you could be missing out on the best solution for their needs.
Consumer Duty puts into regulation what many brokers will consider as just good practice, but even where brokers are already taking a comprehensive approach to market research, it’s likely to mean extra work given the emphasis on evidencing the advice process and recommendations.
So, now is the time to think about how you can work more effectively and make use of the resources available to you. We believe that a specialist distributor like Brightstar is perfectly placed to help put you and your clients in the strongest possible position.
