Just Wealth has strengthened its referral proposition to include support with protection cases, helping brokers at its sister firm Just Mortgages meet their Consumer Duty obligations.

Mortgage brokers can now utilise a Just Wealth financial adviser to help clients with their protection needs. The aim is to streamline the process for brokers, helping increase their own bandwidth and the level of coverage, all while offering clients service all under one roof.

It comes with the recent arrival of Consumer Duty. The protection gap has long been identified as a clear challenge for the industry and under the new rules, a lack of protection can be seen as foreseeable harm.

In fact, recent research by the FCA as part of its Financial Lives survey found that more than half of UK adults (53%) had no form of protection in the last two years. It also found that nearly 13 million people have low financial resilience.

Just Wealth head of wealth Dave Magee says that in the current climate and with the arrival of Consumer Duty, it’s never been so important for brokers to have meaningful conversations with clients about protection.

“When that isn’t always possible, our new service allows Just Wealth advisers to step in and ensure that the mortgage is fully protected and the client isn’t left exposed”.

“We’re already in the process of overhauling our entire referral process to make it easier for brokers to refer and maintain a clear line of sight throughout that journey”.

Carl Parker, national director at Just Mortgages (pictured) adds: “In a busy brokerage, protection can all too often be a poor relation to mortgage advice. In the spirit of Consumer Duty and delivering the best service to clients, this cannot be the case.

“Many of our brokers have already built strong partnerships with Just Wealth advisers, which will be reassuring as they now look to refer over clients for protection.”