Shepherds Friendly offers a good level of service for Income Protection as reflected by the Defaqto Silver Service Rating.  The Business Development Team here at Shepherds Friendly are delighted to have scored well in Defaqto’s 2017 Protection Service Review and achieved a Silver Service Rating.

In response to the rating head of sales, Antony Uttley said:

“This is a fantastic result. It’s hard for advisers to distinguish between providers offering similar products. The Defaqto Silver Service Rating will support advisers by providing a key differentiator when researching and selecting a product.

“Receiving a Defaqto Silver Service Rating for our Income Protection Plan provides advisers with an unbiased testimony of the quality of service they can expect to receive from us. All our staff work hard to uphold our ethos of ‘putting members at the heart of everything we do’. The Silver Service Rating shows that the values and beliefs the society was built upon in 1826 remain at the core of our society today”.

Defaqto supporting businesses

Defaqto is a financial information business, helping financial institutions and consumers make better-informed decisions. It has over 20 years’ experience, with 60 analysts spending over 400 hours a week analysing the market.

Since 2005, Defaqto has been conducting service satisfaction surveys across the adviser community, asking advisers to rate the service they receive from providers. The service satisfaction survey covers several product ranges, including; DFMs, pensions, platforms, bond providers and protection insurers.

The comprehensive survey asks advisers to rate the importance of a list of aspects of service that fall into different categories, using a 5 point scale.

Advisers are also requested to note down details of their preferred supplier(s) and rate their satisfaction level using a pre-defined set of satisfaction scores, ranging from ‘very dissatisfied to ‘very satisfied’. The collated survey results are analysed to provide an overall satisfaction score. Service providers can be awarded a ‘no rating’, Bronze, Silver or Gold rating.

Advisers working in today’s market have a variety of Income Protection Plans to choose from. Defaqto Service Ratings help advisers to make better-informed choices based on their peer’s perception of service. It also enables advisers to compare different product providers based on their service provision.

For further information on our Income Protection plan, please get in touch or register today.

Here at Shepherds Friendly, we’re committed to achieving the best results for all our members.  The Society’s ethos of ‘putting its members at the heart of everything we do’ has been rewarded with a prestigious industry prize.

We are excited to announce that we recently won the ‘Best Small Insurer’ award at the inaugural Insurance Investment Exchange Awards, a night dedicated to highlighting the vital work carried out by investment teams and asset managers.

Ann-Marie O’Dea, CEO of Shepherds Friendly, accepted the award from Dr Bob Swarup, co-founder of the Insurance Investment Exchange. She said: “I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of all the Shepherds Friendly team who work so hard for our members.

“We believe in conducting our business with integrity, ensuring that investments are treated fairly and responsibly. And, by creating a culture that encourages creativity, we can continually seek potential in all the small areas of opportunity that we encounter.”

The Insurance Investment Exchange (IIE) recognised us as ‘Best Small Insurer’ for the creative ways that we seek to maximise the returns from our investments for our members. It is the first time that this industry recognition has been available to the insurance investment community and the ceremony shone a spotlight on the excellent work that our team do on behalf of our members.

IIE acknowledged the challenges facing small insurers ‘in ensuring their investment portfolios deliver real value while minimising the growing resource demands of navigating an increasingly complex and volatile environment’. Our ability to supply an innovative strategy and to use internal talent were both factors in the award.

Bob Swarup, who presented Shepherds Friendly with the award, said: “The numerous strategies and solutions put forward to meet the many challenges of the current insurance world demonstrated a rich diversity of thought, and it is clear that innovation is alive and well.”

For more information about our range of plans, head to our products page or call us on 0161 495 6495.