Mortgage advisers lose £47.8m through missed home insurance sales

Remortgage and product transfers were a huge area of missed opportunity, amounting to £10 million alone in lost commission.

Paymentshield is aiming to help advisers recoup this lost income by launching a 22% pricing reduction on its home insurance for new remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients.

Emma Green, head of sales at Paymentshield, commented: “Having a conversation about home insurance is often not perceived as a priority by advisers, but they are missing out on a huge amount of commission. Remortgage and product transfer clients in particular are often overlooked when it comes to a general insurance conversation. We know from our own research that nearly half of advisers (47%) admit to missing opportunities to sell general insurance. When it comes to remortgage and product transfer clients this is because of renewal dates not matching, cancellation fees, or simply because clients perceive their existing policy to be meeting their needs. As a result of Covid-19 more consumers are starting to review the protection products they have, from wills, life insurance, mortgage protection and home insurance – so the benefits of reviewing policies for remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients are also clear.

“We know that it can be hard to compete with internet pricing and even harder to make a customer jump ship before their home insurance renewal is due. For this reason, we’ve not only launched a three-month payment holiday option but we are also offering a 22% discount on our Defaqto 5 Star Rated Home Insurance pricing for remortgage, product transfer and equity release clients.

“We hope that by launching initiatives to help advisers sell more GI, we will significantly reduce that £47.8 million lost earnings figure by next year.”