A tie-up between HLPartnership and later-life lending platform Air will see the network’s brokers receive free equity release training.
The firms say the move will mean the club’s advisers, with later life lending permissions, will be granted an annual membership to Air Academy’s continuing professional development training platform.
Once a year HLP brokers will be tested on their knowledge of the later life market, “to increase standards for members who provide guidance on equity release products”.
The network’s advisers will have access to Air’s knowledge bank and marketing hub, with the platform also offering an equalisation of procuration fees.
The platform has also launched an upgraded fact find feature, supported by the network.
The hub will still offer its standard fact find option – giving advisers flexibility to skip, or, add questionnaire points – but a corporate partner endorsed option has been added on top of this.
The corporate partner option has additional questions to capture ‘soft facts’ from the customer.
The platform says that although the enhanced fact find feature contains more mandatory options to support affordability purposes, users can still add questions and use templates across both versions.
HLP advisers will be mandated to take Air Academy courses and will gain access to nine modules, including its vulnerability course, for no extra charge.
HLPartnership managing director Shaun Almond says: “Our exclusive partnership with Air Academy – an industry first – will equip our advisers to stay in lockstep with evolving regulations so they can deliver the very best outcomes to customers.
Air chief executive Paul Glynn points out that the move is, “a strong step towards ensuring all later-life lending advisers have unmitigated access to the most effective tools for delivering the best possible service to their customers, while being compliant with Financial Conduct Authority regulations.
“As we all know, the Consumer Duty is an ongoing commitment, and one we can readily meet by embracing the best educational resources our industry has to offer”.
