Air Group has released its second half-year equity release provider ‘Temperature Check’ report, which focuses on a number of key service measures, as experienced by advisers.

Over 250 smaller advisers, who account for 8% of the plans taken out in the second half of 2020, rated providers they had used on five key service areas and three net promoter factors.

The later life services platform said its ‘Temperature Check’, which in this iteration covers H2 2020, has been designed to “give smaller advisers a collective voice” in terms of providing feedback on providers’ service levels.

Based on scores out of 10, the top four providers in the report’s ‘Overall Category’ were Pure Retirement (8.11), more2life (8.07), Legal & General (7.88) and Canada Life (7.86).

In the ‘Net Promoter Score Category’, based on percentages, Air Group announced the top four were Pure Retirement (86.25%), more2life (80.92%), Canada Life (78.95%), and Legal & General (70.98%) with the individual categories breaking down as:

The providers whose service levels were reviewed as part of the ‘Temperature Check’ in the second half of 2020 were: Aviva, Canada Life, Hodge, Legal & General, LV=, Just, One Family, more2life and Pure Retirement.

Air Group CEO, Stuart Wilson, called the second half of 2020 an “incredibly busy period for all those involved in the equity release sector”, following a significant uplift in demand and activity from clients.

“At the same time, we had a necessary shift in working practices, with the vast majority of providers having all their staff working remotely,” Wilson said. “Of course it did take some time to get used to this and to ensure systems and processes were able to cope with lockdown life and the upsurge in demand.

“Perhaps understandably, this iteration of the ‘Temperature Check’ has seen a number of providers post scores which fall slightly below what they were able to achieve in the first half of the year, which included the Q1 pre-lockdown period. Having said that, a number have seen an improvement.

“We congratulate all those providers who made our ‘Top Four’ during what was an eventful six months, to say the very least. As we all know, November saw a further lockdown at a time when transactions were appreciably up; a situation which we currently find ourselves in once again.

“We’ll continue to use the ‘Temperature Check’ to allow advisers to express their views, and in order to work with providers to help drive up service standards and outputs to the highest level possible.”

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