Mortgage Business are proud to announce that we have earned the Platinum Trusted Service Award 2022!!

What are the Feefo Trusted Service Awards?

Feefo’s annual awards shine a light on businesses who demonstrate an outstanding service to their customers. Winners are decided based on the ratings they receive from their customers.

How do I win a Trusted Service award?

For the Trusted Service 2022 award, a business must have collected at least 50 reviews between January 1st 2020 and December 31st 2021, and achieved a Feefo service rating of between 4.0 and 4.4.

To achieve our coveted Gold Trusted Service 2022 award, a business must have collected at least 50 reviews between January 1st 2020 and December 31st 2021, and achieved a Feefo service rating of at least 4.5.

To earn a Platinum Trusted Service 2022award, businesses must have won a Gold Trusted Service for the past three consecutive years.

The Trusted Service Award is a recognised symbol of trust, helping customers click with confidence.

Those that meet our criteria of excellence achieve Trusted Service are the brands that go above and beyond for their customers.

https://www.feefo.com/en/business/trusted-service

Call our team on 01245 956900 or 01277 223355 to experience our award winning service for yourself!

For more than 150 years, Royal London have been helping families plan for the unexpected with their range of insurance. Their products help protect yourself, your family and your lifestyle against life's ups and downs. And in 2020, they paid out on 99.6% of claims, helping nearly 86,000 customer and their families.¹

Royal London are a mutual, so they’re not answerable to shareholders. They can make their decisions in the best interests of you, the customers.

The cover you need doesn’t have to cost the earth

We can recommend a plan that suits you and your budget. We’ll work with you to decide what type of cover you need, how much of it and for how long, and whether you would need a lump sum, a monthly income, or a combination of both as a pay out if you had to make a claim.

Their flexible Personal Menu Plan can be set up to suit your budget and needs today, and you’ll be able to review your cover in the future. So when your life changes, your protection can too. You might move home, increase your mortgage or welcome a new addition to the family, giving you more to protect. And you might have a bigger salary to look after in the future than you do today. Whatever course your life takes, your plan can offer you protection that helps meet your needs today and throughout the life of your plan

A summary of Royal London’s Personal Menu covers

* Please note that these covers will only payout if it’s covered within the terms of your plan.

For full details of Royal London’s cover and definitions visit royallondon.com/plandetails.

A Helping Hand when you need it most

Helping Hand is a support service available through Royal London advised plans and as a plan owner it’s won’t cost you anything extra to use. It’s available for you and your family, giving you access to personalised support from a dedicated nurse whenever you need it. For example, sometimes you might need someone to talk to – for professional advice, or an independent opinion. And if you or your family are affected by death or illness, you might need medical information or emotional support. Helping Hand gives you access to what you need, when you need it the most, such as:

• emotional and practical support from a dedicated nurse
• access to a second medical opinion
• bereavement counselling
• complementary therapies
• legal, career and medical helplines.

And for new Royal London customers, Helping Hand now includes additional support services such as access to a health and wellbeing platform that provides mental health support, personal activity intelligence to improve fitness levels and 24/7 access to virtual GP consultations. The wellbeing support services will also soon be available to customers with an existing Menu Plan. View our infographic to find out more.

Find out more

Visit the Royal London website or get in touch to find out more.

Helping Hand is a package of support services and each service is provided by third parties that aren’t regulated by either the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority. These services aren’t part of Royal London’s terms and conditions and don’t form part of your insurance contract with them, so can be amended or withdrawn at any time. This means that you or your family’s access to these services could be amended or withdrawn by Royal London in the future.

Sources: 1 – Royal London 2020 claims statistics

Looking Back & Aiming Forward – 2022

Wow, what a year 2021 has been! We have seen a major shift in our business, with more colleagues and clients working from home. As a business we have evolved at pace, providing support for colleagues to ensure our clients continue to receive the excellent service they have come to expect from us.

2021highlights include; the retention and growth of our fantastic team! The launch of our brand new office in Chelmsford. Knowledge building sessions from providers and Mortgage Lenders that enable the team to stay ahead in an everchanging industry. Supporting our NHS, 2021 with our fee free service for all NHS workers. We are absolutely proud that we have maintained our 5 Star clientFeefo rating for a 2^nd year in a row; the launch of our Protection Executive role, which makes clients journey to protection even more efficient!

2022.. what next! There is so much potential and its exciting to see how the business will continue to adapt and learn. There are some fantastic new ideas for ways or working, systems and processes, all with one goal in mind – being the very best for our clients!

Exciting times, you have to wonder why would you go anywhere else!!...

That just leaves us to wish you all happy holidays and a Happy New Year from the Mortgage Business Team

Talking Green Mortgages

Green mortgages are mortgage deals available to people who buy environmentally-friendly homes or make energy-efficient home improvements to their property. These deals have been around for several years, but they’re only now beginning to take off

Under a green mortgage, a bank or mortgage lender offers a house buyer preferential terms if they can demonstrate that the property for which they are borrowing meets certain environmental standards. This could perhaps be a new build home with an existing sustainability rating, or where the borrower will commit to invest in renovating an existing building to improve its environmental performance. In other words, a green mortgage is a mortgage specifically targeted at green buildings.

As an incentive for the borrower to either buy a green building or to renovate an existing one to make it greener, banks would offer them either a lower interest rate or an increased loan amount.

If the home you want to buy has an energy efficiency rating of 81 or above, or is in energy efficiency bands A or B, you could get lower rates on some fixed-term mortgages.

Whether you're buying for the first time or already have a mortgage, you're eligible as long as you’re buying the property to live in.

You can find out if your new home is energy efficient

Any new home will need a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or B to be eligible to select a Green Mortgage product. You can check your homes Energy Performance Rating here Energy Efficiency Rating

It was around two years ago that the Directors of Mortgage Business decided the time was right for expansion. Little did they know they would face into a Pandemic, National Crisis and material shortage when they took on a fabulous old building and decided to restore it from the basement up!

The grand old building at 1 Tindal Street, Chelmsford has previously been host to Bars, Public Houses and Nightclubs dating back to 1906.

Now it’s been completely restored and repurposed. Ready to open the doors and provide expert Mortgage Advice whilst still maintaining a friendly, welcoming place to be.

Our talented team have more than 60yrs industry experience.

We take away all the pressure that comes with finding the right mortgage, leaving our clients free to carry on with their busy lives while we get on with finding the best available product & recommending the most appropriate protection.

Call 01245 956900 to find out more

Aviva individual protection policies paid out £981,997,431 to more than 26,500 UK customers and their families during 2019, with just 3.7% of all claims received being declined.

The UK insurer paid more than £582m to the families of life insurance customers who died or were diagnosed with a terminal illness last year. A total of 16,363 life and terminal illness claims were paid, representing 98.6% of claims received.

Critical illness claims

A further £353m was paid out on policies where either the customer or one of their children had been diagnosed with a critical illness, or where the customer met the definition for total permanent disability. A total of 4,957 claims, or 93.1%, were accepted.

44% of adult critical illness claims were made by customers who had been diagnosed with a covered critical illness under the age of 50, with Cancer the most common condition claimed for across all ages at 66%, (rising to 79% amongst females). Heart Attack was the second most common reason at 11% (rising to 21% amongst males).

Claim volumes for children’s benefit were consistent with the previous year, with Cancer the most common reason (49%), followed by Benign Brain Tumour (7%). 94% of children’s benefit claims were paid out, with an average value of £19,600.

Income protection claims

On individual income protection, £44m in benefit payments were paid to 4,007 customers during last year, including 1,189 as new claims. 85.7% of new claims were accepted.

The average age of customers starting a claim was 43, with Musculoskeletal conditions the most common new claims (29%), followed by Mental Health claims (22%).

Many of these customers were also supported by additional services such as Aviva’s Back to Work Benefit which offers physio, counselling and rehabilitation support, and Family Carer Benefit.

Aviva also paid out just below £3m to 1,185 customers with Fracture Cover policies.

Reasons for decline

6.9% of critical illness claims were declined, with 5.3% due to the medical diagnosis not meeting the policy definition which was set out when the policy was bought.

Of the 1.4% of Life insurance and terminal illness benefit claims declined, 0.7% were due to misrepresentation where inaccurate statements about health or lifestyle were made during the application.

Common reasons for income protection claims being declined include misrepresentation during the application, not being totally disabled from working and no loss of income.

Jacqueline Kerwood, Claims Philosophy Manager at Aviva, said:

“This year we have been forced to face how uncertainty can hit us all and how our lives can change in a matter of days. The coronavirus pandemic has sadly demonstrated how anyone can be a victim of a serious illness, which can have a lasting impact on quality of life and the loss of loved ones.

"Our top priority is always to make sure our people and our customers are safe and that we are there, helping and supporting people in times of need. We remain committed to continuing to pay out on claims and to providing a first-class service and support for our customers."

“We are doing all we can to reduce the burden on the NHS, with existing processes well placed to obtain medical evidence via other sources, rather than GPs and Consultants, to help assess claims. Thanks to our strong relationship with cancer nurse specialists, we are also gathering information over the phone which is speeding up the process for cancer claims.

“As one of the biggest insurers in the market, we have adopted the Association of British Insurers (ABI) protection pledges¹ in supporting all our customers, especially the vulnerable ones, who may be affected by the impact of Covid-19 when making a claim on a life, critical illness or income protection policy.

“Paying out a claim is not just about money for us. Our protection claims team handles all our customers’ calls with empathy and support, working hard to ease their burden just a little bit at this difficult time. Our job is to make sure that our customers feel safe, heard and protected.”

Aviva’s Individual Protection Claims Report which will be published later this summer.

Figures for life, critical illness, income protection and fracture claims have been rounded to the nearest million.

¹ Further information about the ABI’s Covid-19 Protection Pledges is available here