How Tower is growing its adviser and referrals network

Tower Insurance has built up its independent adviser network to 2500, with numbers increasing by 21% in the past six months.

Wednesday, July 20th 2022, 8:33AM

At the same time, Tower’s internal referrals team which liaises with these advisers and their customers has grown to 17, including three business development managers and an operations manager. Five years ago, the team didn’t exist.

Jonathan Beale, Tower’s managing director, partnerships, says the insurer works primarily with mortgage and risk advisers but is keen to add more financial planning and investment advisers to the network.

The referrals system enables advisers to put clients who’re seeking fire and general cover directly in touch with Tower.

“Fire and general is the only insurance that’s compulsory when getting a mortgage. It’s about making it easy for customers – they’re looking to buy a house, not insurance, so we make the process really simple for them,” Beale says.

With the regulators – and the financial services industry more generally – focused on conduct and compliance, Beale says it’s important that everyone “is having the conversation they’re qualified to have.

“It’s a sweet spot,” he says. “[The advisers] just fill out a form, it takes two minutes to come back to us and we speak to the customer for them. It works well, and we get really good feedback about the service. The advisers need to be sure they’re choosing the right insurance company, so we help them understand our products and service offering. It’s a nice package for everybody.”

A former banker, Beale says wealth managers in his previous life would tend to move quickly past the conversation about fire and general insurance “but I think it’s important to get these things right”. While mortgage advisers are required to discuss insurance with their clients, in Beale’s view investment advisers should be doing the same thing.

Traditionally, advisers have aligned themselves with insurance brokers, whose focus is on the top end of town. “It’s commercial rather than fire and general so we are seeing an opportunity to occupy [the domestic] space,” Beale says.

“For advisers it’s a great. It’s easy and I think the service level we’re able to offer and the advice we give is very different to [others] in the market.”

Tower has plans to develop the network further, potentially giving advisers the ability to prepare insurance quotes for clients and even sell the insurance themselves.

Tags: Tower Insurance