The Intermediary – August 2026 - Flipbook - Page 20
Q&A
PMS and Bankhall
Marvin Onumonu speaks with Claire Cherrington, director
of PMS and Bankhall, about helping advisers have broader
mortgage, protection and wealth conversations
How was your first year at PMS?
Is advice becoming more holistic?
It’s been a privilege to join a business with a
30-year heritage and such a strong reputation.
My first year has really been about listening –
getting to know our advisers, lender partners and
colleagues, and understanding what makes PMS
work so well.
What’s struck me most is the resilience and
ambition adviser firms continue to show despite
challenging conditions, and my focus has been on
making sure PMS evolves alongside their changing
needs – listening first, then shaping support
around what firms genuinely need to start, run,
grow and eventually exit well. Relationships
remain the biggest differentiator in this market.
Yes, but it’s a journey. Clients increasingly need
guidance through three connected conversations:
their home, their protection needs and their longterm financial plans. A mortgage can naturally
open a protection conversation, and both can lead
into wealth, retirement or Inheritance Tax.
Regulation is pushing the same way:
Consumer Duty and the FCA’s protection focus
are encouraging firms to evidence value across
mortgages, protection and wealth, not just at the
point of sale – particularly for first-time buyers,
later life borrowers and specialist cases. Firms that
broaden the conversation build stronger client
outcomes and deeper recurring value, supporting
the whole relationship rather than a single
transaction.
‘One client, multiple conversations’ should
become the industry’s growth model.
How would you describe the health
of the market?
It’s moree positive than 18 months ago, though far
d as customer circumstances
from straightforward
ood news is that
become more complex. The good
oadening the advice
many firms are adapting by broadening
es, ensuring better
conversation beyond mortgages,
customer conversations, while also improving
business resilience.
et is busier, but it’s not
The mortgage market
a simple recovery story. Much off the growth
is coming from the huge wave off fixed-rate
deals maturing and needing to be renewed or
esh lending. FCA data
remortgaged, rather than fresh
e: outstanding lending was
reflects this picture:
2.6% higher year-on-year in Q1 2026, but gross
advances were 10.2% lower.
onsolidators are changing
Private equity and consolidators
the landscape. The real challengee here isn’t
onsolidate, but how the industry
whether firms consolidate,
preserves local, trusted advice while giving firms
ess to the scale and support they need.
access
Has Consumer
Duty changed
relationships?
Rather than
a compliance
exercise, it’s
become a
framework for
delivering better
advice, prompting
more structured
conversations
around
vulnerability,
protection
and ongoing
servicing.
CLAIRE
CHERRINGTON
18
The Intermediary | August 2026
