Scottish Widows partners with Origo to enhance letter of authority process

Scottish Widows has partnered with Origo to enhance its letter of authority process for advisers across its business, aiming to cut turnaround times and improve the quality of information. 

Origo’s Unipass Letter of Authority (ULoA) gives advisers a single method for sending all LoA requests to any UK platform and product provider. 

Entirely free and with whole-of-market provider coverage, the new system serves as a one-stop-shop for advisers to access all of their LoA requests and information via one secure digital portal.

This marks the first in a series of upcoming investments by Scottish Widows to provide advisers with a frictionless experience beyond its Platform and across their business, by utilising Origo’s suite of data services.

Origo recently unveiled several enhancements to its ULoA service. These include a checklist for advisers to upload specific data points they need, ensuring they obtain all the required information from providers to process requests smoothly.

Anthony Rafferty, CEO of Origo, commented: “Letters of authority are a vital part of the financial planning process and, having developed our service based on direct feedback from advice firms, our ambition is to transform the LoA experience for advisers and their clients.

“While we are proud to have established ULoA as a whole-of-market solution, the deep integration now achieved with leading providers like Scottish Widows represents a significant advancement for the industry. Delivering this level of connectivity for several major pension providers — and with further integrations already underway — demonstrates our ongoing commitment to driving efficiency, transparency and improved outcomes for advisers and their clients across the market.”

Ed Parker, head of adviser lab at Scottish Widows, said: “We are very pleased to extend Origo’s Unipass LoA service beyond the Scottish Widows Platform for advisers serving clients with our workplace pensions, retirement, protection and longstanding products. 

“We’re committed to improving our LoA servicing, including the speed of our responses and the accuracy of information at this important part of the financial planning process.

“Our intent is to deliver Origo data services to a high level across Scottish Widows, removing friction from the way we share data with advisers to deliver a consistent and industry leading experience across our business.”