The Intermediary – January 2026 - Flipbook - Page 24
S TAT E O F T H E N AT I O N
Feature
Richard Dana
We get a lot of recommendations and repeat
CEO, Tembo Money, London
business because we only ever sell to clients that
understand that value of the protection we’re
Tembo is a savings and
providing.
mortgage app focused on
We also do a lot in the community, giving back
helping first-time buyers
to charities and clubs locally, and that has helped
on their home buying
to build our reputation.
journey, from when they
There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the press,
put the first pound into
but when we do reviews with clients, we’re finding
one of our ISAs through
that people have disposable income, thanks
to when they buy the
partly to large pay rises over the last couple of
house.
years.
Our whole USP is about helping people take
You only have to go into town on a weekend
that first step into home ownership.There’s a big
to see pubs and restaurants are full and I think
pain point when you look at first-time buyers.
there’s more money out there than people think.
30 years ago, there were 600,000 a year. Last
That means there’s a big opportunity for 2026.
year, there were around 350,000 or so. That’s
As the cost of living has increased along with
a big reduction, and the overall population has
these pay rises, it’s even more important to cover
gone up, so that doesn’t really make sense. Plus,
yourself.
there’s real pressure in the rental market - we
think there’s about two to three million people
As protection specialists, our job is to help
people understand what would happen if they did
who would really like to buy, but they can’t
suddenly stop earning and how we can help them
because of affordability.
protect their income. This year we’re looking to
So, there’s a big opportunity to help more
expand into new complementary lines.
people in 2026. We’ve seen lots of innovation
from lenders, with increasing LTI caps for
example, which is helping.
The challenge is consumer confidence. If you
James Wellman
Director, Lime, Gloucester
actually look at the data, the economy is not,
At Lime, we pride
perhaps, in as bad a situation as some people say,
ourselves on being
but there’s been this consumer confidence issue,
approachable. We’re a
as people don’t quite know what’s around the
small firm but we’re
corner.
always there for our
Despite that, I feel pretty bullish it’s going to
clients, and we give back
be a big year in 2026. Rates have settled and
to our community. Last
we’ve come through the first year of the new
year I visited schools and
Government, so I hope we can start to have more
business-as-usual economic behaviour.
clubs to talk about the
importance of financial education. I think as
brokers we have a responsibility to share our
Oliver Lodge
knowledge.
Director and protection specialist,
2025 was a really good year for us. It felt like
Bespoke Financial Yorkshire Ltd
a year of recalibration, with a resettling of rates.
Yorkshire
What stood out is the growing importance of the
protection conversation.
At Bespoke, we’re
days of simply arranging a mortgage and moving
our approach is to educate
on are gone. As advisers, a good job isn’t just
a client about the value of
finding somebody a cheap rate - it’s making sure
why they need that cover.
their family is protected.
Many clients come to me
There is much more emphasis across the
initially and say, “I want
industry on protection, and clients are more
life cover” and my first
open to the conversation.
question is “why do you
As a company, we’ve only been going three
want it?” Once they understand what could
years; but this year, for the first time, we’ll have
happen in other areas of their life, it opens up
opportunities for remortgages and product
the protection conversation.
2025 was another successful year for us.
22
With Consumer Duty firmly embedded, the
protection specialists, and
The Intermediary | January 2026
transfers. Being able to service existing clients,
do reviews and potentially move them onto a
