Weekly Provider Update – 12th October 2020

 

Weekly Provider Update – Monday 12th October 2020

 

“There’s a magical place, we’re on our way there, with toys in their millions, all under one roof – it’s called… Toys R Us!”

 

You may be wondering why I am referencing Toys R Us in a Weekly Provider Update? Well, continue to read and you will find out why!

 

With another week of chasing providers behind us, and with call waiting times ever increasing, I wanted to share with you some of my methods of chasing, and how I utilise these methods to enable me to save time, and minimise the disruption that the extended call wait times can cause to my daily routine. 

 

The first ‘tip’ I would give to any admin support who chases providers, is to always try and call up about more than one client when you contact them. Let’s use Reassure as an example. Every morning, I will search how many of my tasks involve contacting Reassure. I will then have a copy of the LOA and ceding information for each one of these clients, so that I can get through security and obtain the update that I require.

 

By using this approach, I only have to endure the extended call wait times once and can complete all of my Reassure tasks on the one call. This approach can save you hours of call waiting agony!

 

Now, you may still be confused as to why I referenced Toys R Us at the start of this weekly update? Please, let me explain…. 

 

My other ‘tip’ to save time, is to use a company called ‘Financial Advisers Support Team (FAST)’, when chasing for updates regarding plans held with certain Investment Providers.

 

FAST have access to 30+ Investment Management Systems, meaning that you can call them up and obtain updates on several different clients, who hold Investments with several different management companies (all under one roof!). The Companies that you can get updates on range from Aberdeen Standard to Invesco.

 

From Jupiter to Old Mutual Investors. I find this to be a real time saver, and the staff are really helpful as well – I recently received a call from an ex-employee of FAST, who now works for a different Investment Management Company.

 

He recognised my name from an email I had sent and called me just to see how I was getting on, and if I remembered him from when I used to call FAST!

 

With regards to timescale updates, as has been the case for a few weeks now, the timescales we are being quoted by Providers hasn’t really changed, with the exception of Jupiter, Sterling and LV, who have all seen slight increases in turnaround times.

 

For these updates and more, please log in/register to use our FREE Provider Directory.

 

I hope you have found this weekly provider update useful and can use either of the ‘tips’ mentioned to make your day that little bit easier when it comes to communicating with providers.