Virgin Money is expanding its insurance proposition by launching new home and landlord insurance products in partnership with leading insurtech firm, Uinsure.
Uinsure’s innovative technology will allow Virgin Money customers to get a 5 Star Defaqto rated insurance quote by simply answering a short set of questions; including their name, date of birth and postcode in as little as 30 seconds, in a market-leading quote journey.
The cover will be tailored to the unique requirements of both homeowners and landlords and backed up by customer service that’s helped Uinsure attain an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating.
Key highlights of the new home insurance product:
Generous coverage: Virgin Money’s home insurance provides a robust £1 million of building cover and £75,000 in contents cover as standard, ensuring customers are adequately insured.
Market-leading quick and simple quote process: A streamlined quote process, featuring an easy-to-answer set of questions, enabling them to receive a personalised quote.
Competitive pricing: Using Uinsure’s panel of insurers, Virgin Money can offer a common product at competitive prices without compromising on quality.
Automatic re-broking at renewal: The proposition offers a commitment to maintaining low prices year after year, as the product includes automatic re-broking at renewal, saving customers time and money.
No hidden fees: Transparent fee structure where customers will not incur any fees if they choose to cancel their home insurance or make a mid-term adjustment.
The new home insurance product is available online, with options to take out a policy by telephone for customers without online access. A variety of communication methods are available for renewals, including online, email, post, and telephone.
The partnership with Uinsure also ensures that any new business or renewal quote will automatically offer the customer the lowest price based on Uinsure’s panel of underwriters, with the cheapest price meaning less need to shop around, saving them money and time.
Graeme Sands, head of personal banking at Virgin Money, said: “Virgin Money’s innovative home insurance product offers a market-leading quote journey in as little as 30 seconds, competitive pricing through a panel of insurers, automatic re-broking at renewal, and a transparent fee structure with no hidden fees. In collaboration with Uinsure, who will administer our home insurance product, we provide customers with simplicity, quality, and transparency.”
Martin Schulthiess, Uinsure group managing director, said: “Our technology is built solely around the user – meaning customers can enjoy an insurance journey that’s free of the complexities they might previously have struggled with.
“The Virgin brand is one of the most recognised globally, with a long history of pushing boundaries and innovating for the benefit of its customers. That way of thinking very much mirrors our own way of working and we’re extremely excited to commence our partnership with Virgin Money.”
For more information on the new home insurance product or to get a quote, visit homeinsurance.virginmoney.com
Insurtech, Uinsure, has just unveiled a groundbreaking technology that is set to revolutionise the way insurance is bought and sold in the Intermediary market.
The new technology, Uinsure CX, allows firms and partners to automate insurance quotes and drive engagement and education of the need for insurance at key moments in the mortgage journey, such as application, offer, and exchange, with the ability to purchase insurance digitally.
Uinsure is now the first platform in the UK that can track an individual’s mortgage progress and provide fully automated communications at key moments in the mortgage cycle. It also absorbs data such as mortgage circumstances, e.g. ‘new build’ or ‘remortgage’, to deliver dynamic, contextual content at the right time, and moment in which insurance becomes a need.
According to Martin Schultheiss, Group Managing Director of Uinsure, “In this digital era, consumers expect to be able to access insurance digitally. After 15 months of BETA testing and now with over 90,000 consumers in the UinsureCX journey, we’ve been able to demonstrate how over 60% of intermediary customers will buy digitally through our new technology, whether that’s home movers, first-time buyers or remortgaging customers.”
“We’ve invested several millions of pounds in this new technology to help intermediaries capitalise on the huge opportunity they have. Every mortgage requires insurance and intermediary firms hold the unique data points that can identify exactly when insurance becomes a need for their clients – that’s why Uinsure CX will be such a powerful tool for the market.”
Lauren Bagley, Chief Partnership & Marketing Officer of Uinsure added, “For the first time ever, insurance has been intertwined into the mortgage journey, which will remove so much friction for clients and firms during the mortgage process and supports the industry challenge of creating more integrated homebuying and remortgaging experiences. This is truely game-changing for intermediary firms and we are excited to help intermediaries make GI more convenient and accessible to their clients. Get ready for a new era of insurance technology.”
Subsidence is the gradual sinking or settling of the ground surface. It can happen naturally or as an end result of human activity such as underground mining or oil and gas extraction, as well as groundwater pumping. Subsidence can cause injury to structures and infrastructure and can additionally lead to flooding and different hazards. It’s necessary to be in a position to spot the signs and symptoms of subsidence in order to mitigate the risks.
The most apparent signal of subsidence is a seen sinking or melancholy in the floor surface. This can be a small vicinity or a giant area, and may additionally be accompanied by cracks appearing in the floor or pavement. Another sign of subsidence is cracks in the walls, floors, or foundations of buildings. These cracks are usually diagonal or stair-stepped, and can regularly be wider at the top opposed to the bottom.
A more obvious sign is the tilting or leaning of structures, such as buildings, bridges, or fences. This was the case with the Crooked House Pub which was now famously burnt down in an arson attack and was ‘crooked’ because of mining in the area.Additionally, doorways and home windows can also end up tough to open or close, and flooring can end up uneven due to subsidence.
If you suspect subsidence, you should contact a geotechnical engineer to investigate the situation. They will be in a position to decide the purpose of the subsidence and recommend what you should do next.
Subsidence can be repaired and properties can still be made safe. Here are a few ways this can be done:
Underpinning: This involves strengthening the basis of the construction by digging deeper foundations or putting in new ones.
Grouting: This approach involves injecting a grout combination into the floor to fill voids and stabilise the soil.
Compaction grouting: This approach includes injecting a grout combination into the floor to fill voids and compact the soil.
Drainage: This technique includes putting in drainage structures to get rid of extra water from the soil, lowering the hazard of subsidence.
UinsureCX, the digital insurance technology introduced by Uinsure in March this year, is reshaping how insurance can be offered to intermediary clients with 25,000 referrals received via the platform in Q2 alone.
As the adoption curve of digital insurance among advisers accelerates, the technology is helping Uinsure and its partners transform the way insurance is provided in the intermediary market, with 200 firms now using the digital product.
In an industry where up to an estimated 75 per cent of mortgage customers buy insurance outside of the intermediary market, the technology recognises the importance of offering an insurance quote to all mortgage customers, employing intermediary data collected during the mortgage fact-finding process and then using this data-driven strategy to provide personalised and precise insurance quotes directly to customers through digital channels as they move through their mortgage journey.
“We’re delighted by the response to UinsureCX, exemplified not only by the 25,000 referrals received last quarter but also by the rapid rate of intermediary adoption that means over 200 firms are now using the technology,” said Martin Schulthiess,Group Managing Director of Uinsure.
Strengthening UinsureCX’s development are the newly invested trading optimisation and data teams. These dedicated teams are actively refining the digital product by analysing customer behaviour and then using this insight to further optimise journeys for different segments of customers.
“Our commitment to innovation and collaboration with intermediaries is proven by the impact that UinsureCX is already having on the industry. The recent investment in our trading optimisation and data teams reinforces our dedication to refining our digital product to meet the evolving needs of customers. Their efforts ensure that UinsureCX remains adaptable and responsive to customer feedback and experience.”
Why I chose B2B InsurTech the next chapter in my career
By Lauren Bagley
When you think of general insurance (GI) advice in the intermediary world, it’s invariably the third or fourth priority for most regulated firms. So why would I choose B2B insurtech?
To put it simply, I chose this career to challenge the status quo in an area with so much opportunity. GI remains an enormous and relatively untapped lever for growth across pretty much all advisory businesses.
The Systemic Conundrum
The big conundrum is that every customer needs at least buildings insurance alongside every mortgage, therefore why is there so much disparity between what the customer needs and what advisory firms offer? I’ve been exposed to this systemic challenge and the various reasons why ever since I began my financial services career. Is this something that can change? I firmly believe so.
More Exciting Things Than Comparing Home Insurance
The decision to join Uinsure in particular, was made even easier because of its tech investment and its ambition to use tech to differentiate itself against a very saturated and traditional marketplace. We’re not short of insurance distributors and manufacturers in the intermediary market and those that recognise the power of data, digital journeys and technology to deliver against continually evolving consumer wants, needs and expectations will ultimately help solve the aforementioned “conundrum”. Plainly speaking, I think we can all agree that there’s plenty more exciting things to spend our time on than comparing home insurance – so let’s make it easier, faster and overall more effective. All I would add here is watch this space.
A Redefining Experience
The obsession Uinsure shares in relation to customer experience also drew me. For example, its belief that customers should not be expected to remember their renewal date to maintain a competitive premium. For far too long the industry has labelled “savvy” customers as those who are consistently scouring the market to find the best deal each year, but why should anyone be expected to do that? This mindset of customer centricity is absolutely where innovation starts to happen.
Advisers Have the Advantage
And then there’s the biggest shake up in the insurance market for decades. Following the FCA’s recent GI Pricing Practice proposals, there’s an expectation that pricing will equalise considerably across direct, aggregator and intermediary channels, as a result of the proposed ban on “price walking”. In a nutshell I think this will mean that advisory firms can make headway in a fairer market and will naturally start to capture more market share.
More so than any brands on the planet – advisory firms are a trusted voice to loyal customers and certainly best positioned to make sure that home insurance needs are covered and up to date. Firms also have the first indication that home insurance may be needed – so we should not give up that opportunity to others.
If you’ve managed to get this far in the article (!), thanks for reading and if you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free to share, comment or drop a message.
Covéa Insurance will be joining the likes of AXA, Ageas, LV=, RSA and UK General on Uinsure’s Adviser Platform, aiming to drive a much greater pricing competitiveness and expanding the total insurers on its Home Insurance product to seven.
The multi-award winning insurer has a Standard and Poor’s AA- rating as a guaranteed subsidiary of Covéa, over 60 years trading experience and over 2.1m policyholders in the UK.
In tandem with Covéa Insurance joining Uinsure’s Adviser Platform, Uinsure will now also recognise up to 9 years No Claims Discount on both buildings and contents cover, expanding from the previous maximum of 5 years.
Martin Schulthiess, Chief Commercial Officer at Uinsure commented: “We’re really pleased to welcome Covéa Insurance to Uinsure’s Adviser Platform. Covéa will help us to deliver even more competitively priced, 5 star rated home insurance to customers, across a much wider range of property risks.
The addition of Covéa Insurance supports our mission to grow intermediary distribution of home insurance across the UK by equipping advisers to deliver against the needs of their customers. We believe that our focus on premium value, quality of cover and exceptional customer experience enabled by Uinsure’s technology capability, gives intermediaries a clear differentiator that is hard to match elsewhere.”
ComparetheMarket recently launched a range of online execution-only remortgages with two of the largest lenders in the UK. I’m sure this headline will have grabbed the attention of anyone that leads a mortgage firm and intends to grow their business over coming years and quite rightly so.
In fact, if you log on to any well-known price comparison website, you’ll find that it’s not just insurance products that are part of their overall game plan. Next to the usual compare home insurance or travel insurance buttons, you’ll see options for protection, conveyancing and now also unsurprisingly, a pathway to self-serve a remortgage.
Last year, around 600,0000 people who had been advised on a mortgage by a firm like you, found their home insurance elsewhere. Furthermore, these sites have also collected upwards of 60 personal and property data fields per quote, providing vast intelligence to market your clients with sophisticated, highly personalised communications to deepen that new founded relationship.
Today’s reality is that most people choose financial advisers to arrange a mortgage, but this does not rule out how much power online brands are gaining by building relationships with a footfall of your clients who seek wider product advice alongside their mortgage. From home insurance to conveyancing, these products are a likely need of your client throughout the homebuying process, if not a legal requirement of the mortgage. It therefore makes a lot of sense for advisory businesses to take these products more seriously to make sure they’re delivering against their client needs.
Mortgage advice certainly opens the door to the potential of building a successful business, but what is becoming more apparent to me is that the breadth of service across wider product areas, is the key to protecting and retaining a loyal and longstanding client base which is well-served. Frankly, I believe it’s a necessity to build sustainable and long-lasting client relationships in 2021 and beyond.
The irony is that innovation in home insurance and conveyancing technology for intermediaries has moved much faster than many direct-to-consumer services. I can’t stress enough that it’s not about spending more hours working, late nights filling in forms or rekeying data. The answer is to choose the right technology partner, who can tangibly evidence their capability to integrate and embed these services within your business.
So, if I asked you now to consider offering wider financial services and advice to your clients, would you?
Uinsure have today launched a new tech platform that aims to remove insurance complexity for advisers and their clients. It coincides with the unveiling of a brand refresh for the first time since its inception in 2007.
“Uinsure’s rebrand is not just cosmetic. It represents a maturing of the company, from the inside out that is setting the pace and responding to the demands of our industry by designing the experiences, products and services advisers and their clients expect” said Lauren Bagley, Uinsure’s Chief Partnerships & Marketing Officer.
Lauren continues, “The value that is enabled through our technology is the toughest thing to communicate. Words only means so much – you have to be the words and hence our decision to refresh the brand.
“It’s a major milestone for us as the Uinsure brand becomes synonymous with technology that empowers advisers to provide an insurance experience that kills the complexity that we believe exists in accessing insurance today.”
Martin Schulthiess, Chief Commercial Officer agrees, saying: “Our Adviser Platform introduces innovation that gives advisers the opportunity to outstrip the advantages of direct-to-consumer insurance distributors and deliver greater value to consumers across home, BTL/landlords, non-standard and commercial insurance in one location. Our tech has always been a key differentiator and now that we’ve upgraded this even further, we’re able to be agile, which is now more important than ever against the demand from advisory businesses to digitise their businesses too.
“There’s a big difference between a company that offers technology and actually being a technology company. The latter is the journey that Uinsure has been working towards for the last 36 months. It’s been tough at times; building technology is hard but building technology that makes a difference is even harder. It has required a fundamental shift in culture, structure, process and a complete obsession about our partner and customer needs. We’re now seeing this investment pay off with the delivery of our new Adviser Platform and a refreshed brand to match our ambitions. We’re so excited about the future and this is just the first of several new technology solutions that will be released in 2021.”
The new platform seamlessly enables advisers to receive an insurance quote across home, buy to let and commercial in 3 questions (name, date of birth and postcode) and from there advisers can configure the cover and apply within minutes. It can now be accessed anywhere, on any device and includes features such as giving clients the choice to progress their application in their own time once the quote has been configured, providing clients with an ‘always on’ experience.
In addition to using big data to remove traditional lengthy and complex question sets, it also accesses new build postcode data up to 6 months before postcodes are minted by Royal Mail, meaning advisers can get new build properties insured faster.
Referrals to Uinsure’s GI advisers can now also be made in a few clicks, if the referring adviser does not want to provide the advice themselves. It also has the ability for advisers to flag customer vulnerabilities which then helps Uinsure to deal with clients in the most appropriate way post-sale.
Features of Uinsure’s new Adviser Platform
Uinsure’s Adviser Platform has removed complex and lengthy questions from its journey using big data and third-party integrations to prefill information and therefore remove the need to rekey or answer complex questions.
Advisers can deliver a quote in three questions (name, date of birth and postcode) and from there can configure the cover and apply in minutes.
Advisers can give their clients the choice to progress their application in their own time once the quote has been configured, giving clients an ‘always on’ experience.
It can provide a seamless, straight through digital experience for all types of properties, even if the circumstances are unusual or non-standard.
It accesses new build postcode data up to 6 months before postcodes are minted by Royal Mail, meaning advisers can get new build properties insured faster.
It gives the ability to refer to Uinsure’s GI advisers in a few clicks if the referring adviser does not want to provide the advice themselves.
It has the ability for advisers to flag customer vulnerabilities which then helps Uinsure to deal with clients in the most appropriate way.
The pricing methodology reflects the proposed FCA final rules on GI pricing practices, ensuring that existing customers are treated like new customers at renewal.
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BestAdvice (BA):What have been the traditional problems with accessing insurance products?
Martin Schultheiss(MS): From our perspective, there are a few key challenges that advisers are facing. The first one would be time. In my previous role, (Schultheiss was group managing director of Sesame Bankhall Group before joining Uinsure) we undertook an exercise that essentially worked out all that was required by advisers to do mortgage/protection/GI – to provide the full stack of advice. We got up to around 100 questions or pieces of data that had to be collected. And I did it myself; it took up three hours of administration and that was without actually doing the advice! It shows that the time it takes to do give full advice is a real challenge.
Advisers have to input multiple pieces of data repeatedly, often across multiple systems and with multiple passwords and then logins, completely rekeying all the time. It just takes too long, it’s not practical.
Secondly, particularly in the case of home insurance, is how challenging it has been for advisers to compete with price comparison websites. It’s well-documented now how price comparison websites and others have been able to win adviser’s clients by discounting new business premiums and then over a period of time raise prices by anything up to 50% over a 3-5 year period. This practice is often referred to as ‘price walking’, whereby the premium is artificially discounted in order to capture the attention of the customer, but the intent is to make up that loss by hiking renewal premiums in subsequent years.
So, with new regulation coming in that proposes to ban this practice, we should start to see a more level price playing field, I think now’s the time for the adviser to develop confidence and to get back to having the conversation with their clients.
From a consumer perspective, I would argue there is a level of knowledge and skill required for an individual to navigate their insurance needs if they do it themselves. Again on popular online sites, you’ve got multiple questions, multiple product providers, decisions on multiple features and benefits, so it’s not as simple as it might seem. Advisers have a compelling value proposition through their advised service and should be thinking about taking that hassle away.
BA: So, presumably that’s what drove you to design a tech-based solution for advisers? How are you doing things differently and what effect will it have on an adviser’s time?
MS: First and foremost Uinsure has been on a journey of moving from being a business that manufactures products which are accessed via technology, to becoming a technology company. Our rebrand comes after having made the strategic decision to deliver insurance technology that removes the complexity we believe exists today for the benefit of advisers and their clients. That’s not an easy thing to do, by the way.
We understand that time is key. So, in three questions, advisers should be able to search the market with Uinsure, and then provide a policy in less than 60 seconds. We use data and technology to do this, allowing advisers to give advice while cutting out as much administration as possible.
General Insurance give the adviser permission to engage with the customer every single year [as it is annually renewable], which to me is probably the greatest asset an adviser could have, particularly in a world with longer term fixed rates that are reducing the frequency of engagement within a client base.
Through our tech we deliver a single common policy, with a 5 Star rating; something that’s simple to understand and not complex and all our insurers then compete to deliver the best price based on that property risk. The key is that the price is fair for the lifetime of the policy, we also review this annually to ensure the customer has the most competitive new business price at every renewal.
We’re not the cheapest because we offer a high quality product and we have never offered introductory cut price offers with the intent to hike at subsequent renewals. In fact, we’re probably one of a very small number of companies that deliver negative premium reduction on an annual basis. I see this as a point that advisers should be talking to their clients about, in contrast to what they may receive elsewhere.
BA:What are the biggest pressures advisers face in the future and how can they address them now?
MS: There are two key things that are going on in the market right now. One is that customers are coming to advisers because they trust them and want to be guided through the process, which in itself philosophically places the onus on us to do a ‘full stack’ job for that customer.
Secondly, customers are giving price comparison websites an enormous amount of permission to harvest their data and, in harvesting their data, to use it to offer other products going forward, which in itself creates an enormous risk for the adviser and the protection of their customer base; those comparison websites are offering general insurance, conveyancing, remortgaging, critical illness, income protection, life cover and execution only mortgages, all of which form the product suite of an adviser firm.
So if nothing else, an adviser should be offering a fully comprehensive service to protect the customer and preserve the relationships of their customers. This is against allowing their customers to leave data footprints all over comparison websites that are getting them to agree to privacy statements that will clearly offer a clear and present danger to the existence of the adviser’s business going forward.
BA: When advisers are reviewing technology solutions, what should they be looking for?
MS: In the beginning of my career, technology meant the guy that came to fix my laptop when it wasn’t working. It wasn’t the essence of the core strategy. Today, for me, it’s now people, culture, technology and data; so, the first thing I would say is that it requires a completely new skill set.
Secondly, there’s a very big difference between traditional companies in manufacturing of products and services that claim to offer technology, versus companies that are technology companies which offer products and services. There’s some subtlety there, but it describes an enormous difference.
From a Uinsure perspective, it’s taken us the better part of three years to get to this moment [with the brand and new platform].
I would say to someone looking at a technology company that trust is fundamental. Make sure that the management teams of those technology companies are a combination of what we call “suits and trainers” – techies and people with industry knowledge. Make sure that there’s a good combination in the team of people that understand your business, understand the challenge you’ve got and understand what’s important to you and your customers. They should also have ‘been there’ and experienced it as well. There’s also whether they have leading edge technology capability inside of their management team to deliver.
In addition, there’s no such thing as a single answer to technology. For me, the most important thing is partnering with technology companies that have architectures that are easily integrated, so that you can combine a couple of platforms to formulate an end to end customer experience.
Advisers need to make sure that technology firms solve their problems and in a way that that gets what they need out of their business.
Having spent time during my career working in private equity, the potential of many business owners being able to sell one day is largely dictated by advanced preparation and awareness of what buyers and investors are looking for. Even if your exit strategy maybe many years away, the practice of thinking and acting like an investor, will only be positive for your business in the long run. After recently stepping into my role here, I often wonder why insurance isn’t offered consistently as a core product in an advisory service. This is from the perspective of servicing a client need alongside a mortgage, but also from a business lens of strengthening the foundations that occur from a recurring revenue flow.
Lost recurring revenue
Across our industry around £367m of potential recurring revenue is lost over five years because advisers do not provide insurance advice consistently. To put that into perspective, a mid-sized mortgage firm advising 35 insurance policies a month will create about £212,000 of additional recurring revenue over the next five years, simply by adding a few minutes of advice. It equates to around 30 per cent growth in revenue per mortgage client, but on top of that, it creates a book value that can be sold at a multiple to create a future income.
For many advice firms today income is largely transactional, one-off proc fees and indemnity commission. The model is sensitive to cash flow challenges and the assets are hard to value. Plainly speaking, a single change in the market, not to mention a global pandemic, has the potential of destabilising a business overnight. The ability for businesses to absorb short to mid-term shocks to cash flow is therefore a common deterrent for buyers, if not probably one of the biggest risks.
Quality data
Another area of interest for potential buyers is a data source that can comprehensively and accurately evidence revenue, margin and multiple product holdings per customer.
The questions I would ask myself as a business owner are how active is the client base? Is it growing? What engagement do I have with clients between arranging one fixed rate mortgage to the next? The simple and most relevant answer for firms thinking about an exit strategy is general insurance. It may not have instant value, but there is certainly value over the longer term. It can help weather the storms, drive regular client engagement and most importantly create saleable value that reflects the effort, time and daily grind that you’ve put into your business.
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