On AdviserSoftware.com we began the week with a look back at the first two parts of the discussion from our April Advice Tech Forum featuring ESG experts Elena Philipova from Refinitiv, Terence Moll of 7iM, and Andy Pettit from Morningstar. Part one focussed on the goals of the new ESG regulation, the data available, and how providers are helping advisers to adapt to coming changes.  The second looked at the timeline of incoming regulations, client preferences, and how technology can stop greenwashing.

Even with this week’s small base rate increase, getting a decent return for client money in cash is a major challenge. A growing number of services are emerging to address this need and on Wednesday we published our analysis of Akoni Hub which is certainly a contender.

Thursday’s insight looked at how Aveni analyses customer interactions to increase efficiency, performance and experience using Natural Language Processing (NLP). This provides some really valuable tools to help better manage risk in client relationships and can improve compliance reporting and monitoring.

Turnign to Protection Guru, this was the last week that we will be producing new content this year. Next week we will start re-capping the  year including summaries of the most popular articles with advisers for anyone who wants to do some extra CPD over Christmas.

We began the week with Emma Iskowitz sharing a summary of  How COVID has impacted the Protection Industry as part of the summary of our November Protection Forum. This featured commentary from Adam Kaplan, Pendragon Protect, Scott Taylor-Barr, Carl Summers Financial Services, and Peter Hamilton from Zurich.

On Tuesday Rob Harvey shared an extensive summary of information relevant to different awareness days through the year looking at how cancer generally and specifically Breast, Bowel, Cervical, Ovarian, and Prostate Cancers as well as Brain Tumours and Kidney Disease are considered under Critical Illness plans.

On Wednesday Emma was back with the first summary from our December Protection Forum with advisers looking back at the good and the bad of what the industry has done in 2021. This features Adam Kaplan again, Nina Brown from Pam Brown Mortgages, Emma Astley from Cover My Bubble, Robyn Allen, Robyn Allen Solutions, Paul Reed, Vita, Protection Distributors Group Chair Alan Knowles, and new Lifesearch CEO Debbie Kennedy.

On Thursday Emma published the first details of our January Protection Forum which will look at the new FCA Consumer Duty, what it will mean for the Protection industry and the crucial issue of how we improve the way in which doctors can responds to GPR reports and the opportunity that exists from growing adoption and use of electronic GRP reports. Click on this link to secure your ticket now.

Also on Thursday, Adam Higgs published his usual seasonal light hearted look at protection advice, this year asking the question “Love Actually, what if the characters were your clients”. This piece has had some fabulous feedback in the last couple of days so it really recommend taking a few minutes to enjoy it.

To wrap up the week Adam also provided an overview of our Showcase pages, these are one of the most popular resources on our site. The pages give our analysis of the propositions from ten different protection providers who have invited us to drill into the strengths of their proposition and where they can do better. If you want a quick way to understand what an insurer has to offer, these are a great way to do it.

Have a great last weekend before Christmas everyone and stay safe.