Jackie Leiper, managing director – pensions, share dealing and distribution, at Scottish Widows
Q: What did your company put in place over the past 12 months to help advisers?
A: The past year has been a critical period in the ongoing transformation of Scottish Widows, underpinned by significant investment in our digital capabilities. This has included introducing technology to improve communication and remove pain points for advisers and their clients. We have also been relentlessly focused on supporting and developing our colleagues so that they are able to provide an improved level of service, which is vitally important in a post-Covid and volatile economic environment.
Q: Why is it important to support intermediary distribution?
A: We know that one in six UK adults have low confidence in managing their money and making decisions about financial services and products.
Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds Banking Group, which is able to support consumers across the UK in a range of different ways and a core part of that strategy is our partnership with intermediaries. We have bold ambitions to grow our business – that’s why we are investing around £400mn over three years to innovate and broaden our intermediary propositions.
Q: How have you helped advisers with challenges such as rising costs, hybrid working, etc?
A: As we have emerged from the pandemic, we have continued to support our advisers with their remote or hybrid working practices. We have invested in technology with a focus on improving service and making life easier for advisers.
We are investing around £400mn over three years to innovate and broaden our intermediary propositions.
As we continue to navigate through a period of economic uncertainty, we have created specialist support materials in the form of webinars, vlogs and expert series publications to support advisers and their clients.
Q: What are you planning to do over the next 12 months?
A: Growing market share via intermediary partners needs scale and expertise to deliver high-quality products and services with frictionless processes. We already have the first part in place with a broad product suite. The opportunity is to capitalise on this by digitising product processes, specifically in insurance and investments. Our intermediary proposition will build upon our Embark acquisition with a broader platform solution and an improved digital ecosystem for advisers.
Q: What does it mean to win the five-star award?
A: It’s like Mastermind, the London marathon and the Oscars all rolled into one! These awards have become that bar by which providers and the industry are judged and I’m proud of all the work the team has done to achieve – for seven years running – five stars for the Investment, and Pensions and Protection categories. Our commitment to the intermediary market is stronger than ever and we’re already looking forward to 2023.
Scottish Widows was founded in 1815 and has since established a proud history of working with advisers to help their customers plan and protect their financial futures. Today, they have more than 6 million customers and offer a product range including individual and workplace pensions, annuities, mortgages, savings and investments, life insurance and critical illness cover.
Scottish Widows is one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the life, pensions and investments market, and the organisation’s credentials continue to grow, having gained a prestigious five-star rating in the Pensions and Protection , and Investments categories, voted for by financial advisers at the 2022 Financial Adviser Service Awards. Scottish Widows also scores highly across financial strength ratings from Moody’s, Fitch and AKG.
Scottish Widows is committed to supporting advisers and their clients, using all their experience to take on the future together. They do this by providing market insight and guidance, and continually innovating and improving their service, support and propositions. Key initiatives include ‘Techtalk’, which provides insight into the key industry changes and regulation affecting pensions and investments; a longstanding research programme on UK financial planning attitudes; and continuing to promote the value of saving in pensions through annual involvement in Pension Awareness Day. Scottish Widows is also recognised in the industry for the excellent communications and support given to members of our workplace pension schemes.
Contact details:
Website: adviser.scottishwidows.co.uk
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