Mortgage and protection brokerage Access Financial Services (Access FS) has reported annual growth across its business.
The firm said it saw a rise in mortgage sales between April 2023 and April this year, while the number of protection policies written increased by 34% from 10,052 to 13,500.
Access FS said it now wrote around 75% of its protection policies in trust.
Additionally, the firm said it saw its turnover increase by 46%.
Access FS put its performance down to its “evolving business strategy” that addressed the challenges in the “tough housing market”. This included a push to increase protection sales and recruit more protection advisers, as well as training them to also sell mortgages.
Karl Wilkinson (pictured), CEO of Access FS, said: “Our highly trained advisers are key to our success. We are changing the shape of the mortgage market through our training academies.
“Run monthly, we bring young and inexperienced people into the industry, offering high-quality training and support and a year-long mentoring programme.”
Access FS’ Protection Academy saw the number of entrants double from 15 to 30 trainees monthly, the firm said.
Wilkinson added: “All industry newcomers start on our protection partnership programme with Vitality. After a year of understanding protection in depth with a single provider, only then do our advisers progress to selling whole-of-market products. At this point, they also have the opportunity to enrol in our CeMAP training academies and go on to offer mortgage advice.
“This responsible approach ensures that clients get the best outcomes from Access FS advisers. It also serves protection providers by removing the risk of ill-advised sales and commission clawback.”
The firm also provides its experienced advisers with continued learning and development, management, sales, legal and soft skills competencies.
Wilkinson said: “We reinvest profits to benefit staff and advisers with skillset development, advanced training, and our Access FS mortgage and protection academies.”
Shekina is the deputy editor at Mortgage Solutions and commercial editor at Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions. She has nearly eight years of experience in the B2B publishing market, having previously covered the hospitality, retail, pet, accounting and jewellery sectors.
Shekina has worked for Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions for almost five years. Here, she covers the market’s breaking news stories, engages with professionals in the sector, and oversees any commercially agreed content in partnership with mortgage-related companies.
This includes presenting webinars and hosting roundtable discussions on developing themes in the mortgage sector.
She is an NCTJ-trained journalist and was nominated for the Headline Money Awards Mortgage Journalist of the Year in 2021.
In her spare time, Shekina likes to read, travel, listen to music and socialise with friends.
She currently reports on current events in the mortgage market and liaises with financial clients to produce sponsored content.
Follow her on Twitter at @ShekinaMS
