Paradigm Protect has announced a new partnership with specialist life and health insurance intermediary, Assured Futures.

The partnership will provide a new referral solution for Paradigm member firms, who will be able to refer clients to Assured Futures for protection and insurance products. 

Assured Futures is part of Howden Group Holdings Limited and is a directly authorised intermediary. It covers life insurance, private medical insurance, income protection, and accident, sickness and unemployment cover, and it provides online insurance quotations for a range of insurance products.

Paradigm Protect, which is the directly authorised protection proposition part of Paradigm Mortgage Services, said that Paradigm’s member firms referring clients to Assured Futures will receive a no cross-selling guarantee, and access to a wide panel of providers across all product areas. They will also earn commission terms as a result of the new partnership.

Head of protection at Paradigm, Mike Allison, said that the FCA’s incoming Consumer Duty rules have “drawn into a sharper light” the need for advisory firms to provide a clear solution when it comes to their client’s protection needs.

“Many firms will already have this in hand however it is clear a significant number do not cover this in-house, neither do they have a trusted partner they can work with to ensure this particular base is covered,” Allison commented.

“This new partnership with Assured Futures, means we can offer Paradigm member firms access to a protection specialist who will handle the client journey with no cross-selling and can ensure all their requirements are covered. We want advisers to be confident their client is able to keep up payments on their mortgage, for example, should they lose their job or suffer an illness that stops them from working.

“In Consumer Duty terms, this is a potential outcome of the mortgage advice and recommendation process and therefore the adviser does need to recognise this and put in place the protection groundwork to mitigate against it.

“Overall, we want advisers to either be confident in delivering this advice themselves or to be able to turn to a trusted source of advice who can take this on.”

Director at Assured Futures, Ian Sawyer, added: “We are delighted and very proud to have Paradigm's recommendation to its members and we look forward to making protection and PMI so much easier for them by simply referring to us when they do not want to write the business themselves.

“This sort of signposting is becoming critical in the market, as a result of the Consumer Duty rules. We've been working with IFAs, mortgage advisers and insurance websites for many years now and thus regarded as a very safe pair of hands.”

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