Stonebridge has introduced a new functionality to its Revolution system to help appointed representative (AR) firms and advisers identify and support customers in vulnerable circumstances. Working as a series of prompts for advisers to follow, Revolution will now identify any indication of potential customer vulnerability through answers provided within the fact find. Stonebridge’s system will ask advisers if they have considered the indicator of potential vulnerability and they will need to record whether the customer’s circumstances make them more vulnerable to harm, along with the support provided.

TIME Investments has announced that its inheritance tax (IHT) service, TIME:Advance, has hit £1bn assets under management. The service, which launched in 2013, offers an IHT solution using business relief (BR) to potentially offer an exemption from IHT after just two years. It targets net returns between 3% and 4.5% per annum. The firm also noted the milestone has been achieved as IHT receipts continue to rise, with HMRC figures earlier this week showing that the government took £5.9bn between April 2022 and January 2023, which was £900m higher than the same period a year earlier.

Legal & General Home Finance has partnered with Air to launch its API link on the Air Sourcing platform. The move will allow advisers to manage lifetime mortgage applications seamlessly and directly through the Legal & General Adviser portal. The Air Sourcing platform allows advisers to search and recommend the most relevant, up-to-date later life lending solutions to their clients. As well as providing research filters to meet individual customer needs, the platform allows advisers to request multiple key facts illustrations (KFI) across products.

First and second charge lender, Central Trust, has revamped its residential mortgage range by introducing four new plans and enhancing its lending criteria. The lender’s maximum net loan size has been increased to £250,000, plan one capped at 65% LTV, alongside an increase to the maximum net loan to £150,000, plan two, at 75% LTV. Central Trust has also reduced the minimum time an applicant needs to have been employed to three months. All the firm’s plans are available across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Yorkshire Building Society has announced it will automatically add 0.25% to its variable rate savings accounts following the Bank of England rate increase yesterday. The increase marks the eighth time the mutual has passed rises on to savers since February last year and will result in the minimum interest rate paid on instant access accounts raising to 2.80% and those with restricted access rising to a minimum of 3%. On sale accounts will also rise to a minimum of 2.80%, and the society also confirmed that all qualifying accounts will be updated automatically with the changes coming into force from 5 April, without its customers having to do anything.

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