Advisers – Uinsure

Thought Leadership: Thriving in the ‘Now Economy’

The rise of the “Now Economy” has led to an increase in consumer expectations for quick and effortless transactions. If you’re a financial adviser, you sit at the cross section of a colossal data exchange between multiple parties, which puts you in a prime position to respond to these changing expectations. The key is to understand how to use this data and choose the right partners, so you can adapt your business to give your clients what they want and expect.

So what should you focus on first? Here are some strategies that your firm can use to succeed in this environment:

Communicate relevantly: With all the marketing and spam flooding our inboxes and text messages, it’s important to send targeted, relevant messages that your clients will read and act on. Using data to send timely, relevant communications about mortgage applications, insurance renewals, and other financial products can increase conversions. For example, you can use data to send automated personalized emails reminding clients when their insurance policy is due for renewal or when their fixed rate is coming to an end.
Use an omni-channel approach: Different generations and demographics have different preferences for communication channels, so it’s important to reach customers through a variety of platforms. SMS and WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular for quick updates and have higher open and click-through rates than other forms of communication.
Utilise technology to streamline processes: Automating tedious tasks can help financial services businesses provide a more efficient and seamless customer experience. By using data and choosing the right partners, businesses can make purchases such as home insurance effortless for consumers.
Offer flexible payment options: In the “Now Economy”, consumers expect to pay for goods and services using a variety of payment methods. Offer options such as credit and debit cards, mobile payments, and online payment platforms to make it convenient for your clients to do business with you.

Foster trust and transparency: Trust is more important than ever. Make sure to be transparent about your fees and policies and build trust with your clients by providing excellent customer service and being responsive to their needs (which can also be automated).

The biggest bit of advice? Lean on your suppliers and choose partners to do the hard yards. Give them your problems or needs and let them guide you with their expertise. They should be able to help you identify and implement the right technology solutions.

Thought Leadership: You may think you’re unbiased, but these four questions will reveal the truth about your unconscious biases Thought Leadership:

So what should you focus on first? Here are some strategies that your firm can use to succeed in this environment:

Communicate relevantly: With all the marketing and spam flooding our inboxes and text messages, it’s important to send targeted, relevant messages that your clients will read and act on. Using data to send timely, relevant communications about mortgage applications, insurance renewals, and other financial products can increase conversions. For example, you can use data to send automated personalized emails reminding clients when their insurance policy is due for renewal or when their fixed rate is coming to an end.
Use an omni-channel approach: Different generations and demographics have different preferences for communication channels, so it’s important to reach customers through a variety of platforms. SMS and WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular for quick updates and have higher open and click-through rates than other forms of communication.
Utilise technology to streamline processes: Automating tedious tasks can help financial services businesses provide a more efficient and seamless customer experience. By using data and choosing the right partners, businesses can make purchases such as home insurance effortless for consumers.
Offer flexible payment options: In the “Now Economy”, consumers expect to pay for goods and services using a variety of payment methods. Offer options such as credit and debit cards, mobile payments, and online payment platforms to make it convenient for your clients to do business with you.
Foster trust and transparency: Trust is more important than ever. Make sure to be transparent about your fees and policies and build trust with your clients by providing excellent customer service and being responsive to their needs (which can also be automated).

Are you sure you’re as open-minded as you think you are? Most of us like to believe that we’re unbiased, but the reality is that we all have unconscious biases – automatic stereotypes, prejudices and associations that can unconsciously influence our thoughts and actions.

In the business world, these unconscious biases can have a major impact on diversity and inclusion, leading to certain groups getting different opportunities or levels of support.

So, how can you identify and tackle your own unconscious biases? Here are some things to consider:

Do you tend to surround yourself with people who are like you? It’s natural to feel more comfortable around those who share similar backgrounds, experiences, or interests. But be aware that this comfort zone can also prevent you from being exposed to diverse perspectives and experiences.

Do you catch yourself making assumptions about people based on their appearance or background? We all have preconceived notions about different groups of people, whether it’s based on race, gender, age, or something else. Even though these thoughts might just occur in our heads, take a moment to consciously admit it and think about where these assumptions come from and whether they’re fair or accurate.

Are you actively working to challenge and overcome your biases? It’s not enough to simply recognise your biases – you need to put in the effort to actively challenge and overcome them. This can involve seeking out diverse perspectives, having difficult conversations, or simply considering an alternative point of view.

Are you creating an inclusive environment? Finally, think about your role in creating an inclusive environment for those around you. Do you actively listen to and value the perspectives of others, regardless of their background? Do you try to be welcoming and supportive of all employees, regardless of their differences?

By asking yourself these questions, you can start to identify and address your own unconscious biases. This is an ongoing process that requires a commitment to learning and growth. But by being mindful of your biases and actively working to overcome them, you can play a part in creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Insurance Industry Disrupted: Uinsure Launches Game-Changing Platform for Intermediaries and Customers

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.”

Thought Leadership: New technology has put GI back in the hands of intermediariesThought Leadership:

The ongoing success of aggregators can partly be attributed to the fact hundreds of thousands of mortgage customers per year are not offered home insurance by their mortgage adviser.

Over the years, this has allowed price comparison sites (PCWs) to provide scores of customers access to other financial products like mortgage and protection at any opportunity.

Our goal has been to support firms across the UK to offer GI alongside every mortgage and before customers consider alternatives – but we knew the process needed to be made more seamless than ever to make this happen.

Utilising firms’ valuable data through UinsureCX

We recently unveiled UinsureCX that is already making an impact on the way insurance is bought and sold in the intermediary market.

Advisers track their clients’ mortgage journeys and know the exact moment when home insurance becomes a need as a result, and our new technology allows firms to fully utilise that data.

As customers reach mortgage milestones, automated communications are triggered that drive education of the need for insurance at key moments in a journey, such as application, offer and exchange, while they also give their clients the ability to purchase their insurance digitally.

This means that insurance has been well and truly intertwined into the mortgage journey as communications and quotes are seamlessly delivered in the exact moment your clients might need them – and our latest data shows that over 60% of people will choose to then go on and buy digitally as a result.

This data advisers have and the technology they have available to them means it’s easier than ever to offer insurance before anyone else does – at exactly the right moment – preventing the need for that client to go elsewhere with both their data and their business.

Advisers should take advantage of their position of strength

Intermediaries now have a huge advantage and, for the first time, have access to technology that makes it easy to prioritise GI – and it couldn’t come at a more important time.

Last year, the FCA launched its own discussion paper looking at competitive threats and the likely outcome for consumers, coincidentally around the same time the news that Amazon had entered the insurance space was breaking.

It warned that there are long-term dangers of huge firms generating excessive market share across parallel industries given their huge data sets and ecosystems of complementary products that will be built over time.

But by utilising this technology, advisers will not only improve conversion of insurance alongside a mortgage and demonstrate good customer outcomes by offering every mortgage customer a quote, but they will be using GI as an important strategic tool that acts as a ringfence to other offerings.

Acre simplifies home insurance with Uinsure

Acre simplifies home insurance, with the help of Uinsure

23 May 2022: Acre, the innovative end-to-end mortgage intermediaries platform, has announced a new partnership with Uinsure to drastically simplify building and contents insurance advice. This exciting move means that advisers using Acre will now be able to help protect client homes as part of the mortgage journey in a matter of seconds.

There has never been a more important time to ensure consumers have the right coverage for their home as they face pressure from the rise in the cost of living. Advisers using Acre’s platform will be able to access the most accurate and best value home protection quotes at a click of a button, thanks to Uinsure’s advanced quoting technology and Acre’s unique way of storing and reusing property and client data.

Previous implementations required extensive data entry to get accurate quotes that provided good customer value. Acre and Uinsure’s teams have worked closely together to maximise data re-use, pulling on Acre’s proprietary property dataset and its unique client-centric data model. This helps Acre in its aim to be the one-stop shop for brokers – from CRM, lead capture and sourcing to fact finding, recommendation and application – saving brokers time and money whilst promoting better compliance.

Justus Brown, CEO and founder of Acre said: “Our aim is to allow brokers to spend more time focusing on their clients’ needs and deliver better outcomes with fewer delays. The way we approach data means we understand more about a property than any other tool available to brokers. Combining this deep, data-driven insight with Uinsure’s quoting and application capabilities means brokers can easily and quickly deliver the most accurate and best value policies – ensuring customers are well-covered should circumstances change in the current climate.

“We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Uinsure to help brokers deliver the home coverage clients need without data leakage and tons of extra effort.”

Lauren Bagley, Uinsure’s Chief Partnership and Marketing Officer, said: “Our ongoing mission is to remove the complexities from the GI journey and our integration with Acre means advisers have industry-leading tech available at their fingertips to make the journey for both themselves and their clients as easy as possible – all while including the purchase of insurance as part of their service.

“The partnership with Acre is a natural one. Acre’s software, like ours, has been built with customer experience at the very heart of the development. We’ve both been able to massively streamline and simplify the way our products can be offered through new tech developments and smart data integrations that gives advisers tremendous opportunity for significant time savings when using the platform.”

Since coming to market last year, brokers using Acre have already helped over 10 000 homebuyers get their mortgage, and active brokers have been doubling every three months. To find out more about Acre or to sign up to a demonstration, please visit www.acresoftware.com

Smartr365 expands its offering

Smartr365 expands its offering into home insurance with Uinsure partnership

UK, X 2022: The industry’s leading end-to-end mortgage provider, Smartr365, has expanded its offering into home insurance through a partnership with Uinsure, it was announced today. The integration seeks to further streamline the homeownership journey through the addition of home insurance to the integrated services already offered via Smartr365 platform.

Clients will now be able to access quotes for home insurance within the platform in seconds, eliminating the need to consult external brokers. Instead, advisors utilising the Smartr365 platform can provide customers with a total-solution package across borrowing and insurance, with the aim of reducing paperwork and allowing more time for client engagement, in turn, helping to boost client retention.

Thanks to auto-fill technology, brokers that have initially keyed in client data through Smartr365 will be able to create, tailor and compare quotes in seconds without needing to re-type personal details entered elsewhere on the platform. Other benefits include coordination between both Smartr365 and Uinsure platforms to ensure updates made through Uinsure are automatically reflected on Smartr365, streamlining the process to save advisors up to one hour per application.

The integration forms part of Smartr365’s quest to digitalise the mortgage journey, enhancing the borrowing experience from broker to buyer.

Conor Murphy, CEO and Founder, Smartr365 said:

“There has been real appetite amongst mortgage advisors to expand their services and we have listened, bringing borrowing and insurance together to allow brokers to offer clients a one-stop shop to homeownership and a truly end-to-end mortgage experience. This partnership means that brokers can offer a more comprehensive service to their clients, without the need for time consuming training and accreditation, available via the Smartr365 platform.

“Smartr365 is committed to saving brokers time and preventing paperwork in a bid to simplify the mortgage journey, and this partnership with Uinsure is no exception. Our innovative digital technologies and auto-population features will allow brokers to concentrate their efforts on providing ever-crucial advice to clients amidst such challenging economic circumstances.”

Martin Schultheiss, Uinsure CCO, said: “As a result of our integration, advisers will benefit from industry-leading insurance technology that automatically extracts client data to build the relevant insurance policy, massively simplifying and streamlining the application process, all from within their existing client management platform – Smartr365.

“This technology was developed to help us achieve our mission of seeing GI offered alongside every mortgage application and as this can now be done in seconds from within adviser’s existing workspace, this will prove to be a significant hurdle in helping us achieve our goal.

“Both ourselves at Uinsure and the team at Smartr365 have delivered tech solutions that are built solely with the end customer in mind and given how we’re closely aligned in our drive to continually progress, we’re very much looking forward to how our partnership will evolve.”

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Utilising firms’ valuable data through UinsureCX

Advisers should take advantage of their position of strength

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Acre simplifies home insurance, with the help of Uinsure

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Smartr365 expands its offering into home insurance with Uinsure partnership

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