Inform 20th August 2021

TMA have made the shortlist in the Scottish Mortgage Awards

Get your votes in now… we only have until September 8th!

If you believe we have supported you through these troubling times please take a few moments to vote for us in the Distributor of The Year category in the Scottish Mortgage Awards. This also gives you an opportunity to highlight some of the BDM’s, Lenders and Providers that have also made the shortlist.

Vote Now!

Integrations and digital technology launch

We’re delighted to let you know Accord now has live integrations with all 3 major product sourcing platforms – IRESS Xplan, Twenty7Tec and Mortgage Brain. Following the successful rollout of MSO (Mortgage Sales & Origination System platform) and the improvements to offer turnaround times this gave us, Accord’s new integrations enable the pre-population of DIP data into the MSO portal.

Saving you time and effort

The launch of API technology marks a milestone in Accord’s digital transformation, helping you to submit decision in principle (DIP) requests quicker and easier, freeing up more time to spend with your clients and removing the risk of re-keying errors. This technology can save you up to 20 minutes per application as you won’t have to re-key information into our portal which you have already entered into your CRM or product sourcing system.

There are couple of things that are important in this new process:

Your Accord registration
Please check if you are registered, and, if you are, that your registration is still active before submitting. When your client’s data is submitted you are automatically re-directed to our MSO portal and you will need to log in to continue.

20 Minute Window
Once you are redirected to MSO you have a 20 minute window to create the case and pull the information through. If the 20 minutes passes you will need to go back and resubmit the information. Once the case is created you can continue and complete any remaining data fields then click submit to get your decision.

If you have any questions I am available to support you so please do get in touch.
I thought I’d take the opportunity to also remind you that we recently returned to lending up to 95% LTV (houses only) and up to 90% LTV on new build houses, in addition we can still look at using up to 60% of your clients bonus, commission and overtime income and will lend up to 5 times income for household incomes over £70,000.

Our common sense approach is still very much part of our underwriting and I can help you with those tricky cases that might just be outside of our criteria, if you’d like to chat through a potential case please give me a call or send me an email.

Protect your clients for the future

Estate planning isn’t simply about the money you may pass on when you die, but about making effective choices early to help you reduce or manage an inheritance bill, whilst enjoying your money now.

As advisers, you’ll know Inheritance Tax is usually charged at 40% on everything above your nil rate band. You can reduce or eliminate an Inheritance Tax bill by; making gifts, using other assets in later life and passing on your pension, using tax efficient investments to benefit from Business Relief, and taking out a life insurance policy to cover the potential tax bill.

• Whole of Life policies are often used to mitigate Inheritance Tax liability.
• Whole of Life plans are available on both a single and joint life basis, with options to pay on first or second death for married couples.
• Plans are written into trust, allowing the proceeds to be distributed to the beneficiaries quickly.

Insurers offer policies to cater for all clients with the option of either;

• Guaranteed premiums for those who wish to know exactly how much their cover will cost.
• Or on a reviewable basis where your clients may able to take advantage of an initial lower premium with the risk of the premiums increasing over time.Researching insurers and products on the LifeQuote Platform is straightforward, with options to compare level and index-linked products if required.

If your clients are considering gifting assets, they may qualify as a “Potentially Exempt Transfer” whereby should the donor survive for 7 years after making the gift, there is no IHT due.

However, should the client pass away during the 7 year period, IHT may be due on the gifted amount at a reduced rate. Gift Inter Vivos policies are set up over a 7 year term and mirror the tapered IHT tax relief associated with the gift.

As not every insurer offers a Gift Inter Vivos policy, via LifeQuote you are able to easily build a multi benefit policy to mirror the tapered IHT relief.

For example: your client has made a PET which has £100,000 IHT associated with it.

By dividing the IHT liability by 5 and splitting the cover across the 7 year period you are able to mirror the tapered relief and fully insure your client against their potential IHT liability.

This could be a more cost efficient option for your clients as they will also benefit from reductions in their insurance premiums as the benefits expire when no longer needed.

For more information on how LifeQuote can illustrate IHT solutions, and efficiently process the applications on your behalf, please contact our sales support team on 01243 791199 opt 3 or email salessupport@lifequote.co.uk.

Enhancements to our Self Employed Proposition

From August 17^th we are making changes to Policy to increase the number of self employed customers we can support by allowing applications from those self-employed customers who have historically claimed SEISS grants.

What’s changing:

• We will now accept applications from self-employed customers who have previously received the SEISS grant providing this is not within the 3 months preceding the application
• Income will continue to follow the existing process using the average of the last 2 years or the most recent years income, whichever is the lower
• To simplify the journey, we will no longer be asking you to complete the Mandatory self employed application submission sheet or for our Self Employed Triage team to complete an affordability check
• When assessing the application Underwriters will assess the business’ capability to sustain the declared level of income using the last 3 months business bank statements including considering the impact of Bounce Back Loan commitments
• Should the underwriter verify a lower level of income, the application will be amended and the underwriters will contact the you directly to relay their underwriting decision and provide a maximum lend based on the verified income

If you have any questions, please refer to our Self Employed hub. We have also updated our Packaging Guide to reflect the above changes.

Take ad-Vantage of our free e-book on bridging finance

Whether you’re brand new to bridging finance or would like to build on your knowledge, this free eBook provides an insightful resource – from what bridging is, when you’d recommend it – right through to how to place.

Download your free e-book, “Tapping into bridging finance”, here.

If you would like more information on the above or if you have any questions or cases we can assist you with, give us a call today on 01753 883195

Don’t forget to enter our summer prize draw for your chance to win a luxury summer hamper! Click here to enter.

Our policy on variable income is changing – so we could help more of your clients

We’re making things easier for you by letting you know about some important changes to our policy on variable income, which includes bonus, overtime, or commission.

We’ve reviewed our policy following your feedback, and changes to our acceptance criteria on variable income take effect from 16 August 2021.

What are the changes?

• For regular variable income, we will now only require 12 months’ worth of evidence and we will accept up to 100% towards your client’s income calculation.
  • For example: if your client receives a quarterly bonus, where a similar amount is received every quarter, this can be verified with 12 months’ worth of evidence (such as their latest P60 and latest payslip showing the income), and 100% can be used.

• For non-regular variable income, we will require two years’ worth of evidence and we will accept 50% towards your client’s income calculation. Or 100% may be accepted where it is established that the income is sustainable.
  • For example: if your client receives overtime, but the amount and occurrence is irregular, we require two years’ of evidence (such as their two latest P60’s and their latest payslip showing the income), and 50% can be used.
  • Or: if your client receives sales commission, which is seasonally impacted and therefore isn’t regular, we require two years’ of evidence (such as their two latest P60’s and their latest payslip showing the income), and 100% can be used, where the evidence demonstrates sustainability.

• For all applications where an applicant indicates that they have been in receipt of furloughed/ SEISS income, we will require two years’ worth of evidence, and will take the lower of the last two years (where decreasing), or an average (where increasing).

Specialist Bridging… everyone’s talking about it

Are you looking to be there for your customers as we navigate out of Covid-19? With more borrowers in need of support for their financial bumps in the road, Masthaven’s Specialist Bridging product offers short-term finance flexible enough to meet the demands of today’s changing property market. The bank’s Client Relationship Advisor Melanie Norman explains why you should consider Specialist Bridging in the video below.

Future of Home: Sustainability Spotlight

Introducing the Green homes action group, led by Nationwide
Making the nation’s homes greener can and must be a major part of any transition to net zero. If this is to become a reality, we’ll need to see a wide range of industries (and Government) work together. We need major collaboration in order to deliver the policies and consumer consent needed to meet the UK’s ambitions. That’s why we are developing an action group to tackle some of the key obstacles and opportunities on the path to ‘net zero homes’.

To find out more about other action groups, download the full Future of Home report below.

Report highlights

Consumers need convincing to green their homes
Unsurprisingly, consumers’ environmental concerns have risen by 24% between 2013 and 2020. But while consumers are taking active steps to reduce their carbon footprint, they’ve shown mixed signals about decarbonising their homes.
And data shows there is a generation gap, with Gen Z the most interested in greening their homes and having more concern for home producing carbon emissions.

Fair and affordable funding formula key to greening homes
Costs are one of the biggest barriers to green improvements. Consumers simply aren’t prioritising green issues in their spending.

It is therefore essential that a fair and affordable formula for sharing the costs between consumers and the taxpayer is found if we are to achieve widespread improvements.

Better together: public & private sector collaboration to net zero
If we can harness the power of government and the private sector, greening our homes presents as many opportunities as challenges. With this in mind, collaboration will provide opportunities for the development of new technologies and creation of a retrofit industry with more jobs and skills.

How we’re helping with
Green Additional Borrowing
We’ve made it easier to go green. Our lowest additional borrowing rates are available to help your clients make energy efficient home improvements and help us move towards a net zero world.