23rd October 2018

NS&I launches new phone services for financial advisers

NS&I has now launched new services for financial advice firms via its Adviser Helpline (0800 092 1228). For the first time, firms will have access to information on their clients’ NS&I holdings via the phone. This will significantly speed up the process of working with NS&I. 

These new services have been introduced in response to feedback received from financial advisers and their colleagues, highlighting the need to make NS&I easier to work with.  

The new services available via the NS&I Adviser Helpline are: 

• Speed of access: Requests for information on clients’ NS&I holdings will now be almost instant.  Previously, requests could only be made by post and it could take up to 2-3 weeks for a response to be provided.  

• More client information available to advice firms: 
  • Balances and valuations; 
  • Annual and ad-hoc statements;
  • Maturity dates;
  • Transaction information; 
  • Other account details NS&I holds. 

• New indefinite ‘Client Letter of Authority Template’: Letters of authority will now be held on file by NS&I indefinitely. Previously, firms had to supply a new Letter of Authority, signed by the customer, every time they requested information. Going forwards, only this new template will be accepted by NS&I, but once in place it will remain on file.

• ‘Terms of Business Agreement’: There will be a new agreement between NS&I and each advice firm who wishes to have access to information on their clients’ NS&I holdings. This document forms the legal relationship between NS&I and a financial advice firm, and helps protect the relationship between both parties and their mutual customers.

• Whole firm access: All staff in an advice firm (e.g. financial planners, financial advisers, paraplanners and other support staff) will be able to have access to client information, as long as the firm has signed and supplied a ‘Terms of Business Agreement’ and the relevant ‘Client Letter of Authority’ is in place.

Further information on these service enhancements is available on the Adviser Centre (nsandi-adviser.com), and both documents referenced above can be downloaded from this site. 

Later in 2018, NS&I is planning to launch online access to information on clients’ NS&I holdings. This will be via secure log-in on nsandi-adviser.com.  

All of these improvements are designed to make NS&I easier to do business with, for both advice firms and ultimately, their clients. 

Business Development