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Unbiased.co.uk’s Professional Connections service gets off to a flying first year

Unbiased.co.uk’s Professional Connections service gets off to a flying first year

• Unbiased.co.uk generates almost 30,000 ‘adviser to adviser’ searches over the last 12 months

Unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website today publishes the first year user figures of its Professional Connections service.  Over the last 12 months, over 1,000 IFAs, mortgage advisers and solicitors used unbiased.co.uk’s service to find and link up with other professional advisers across the UK to expand their current business network, generating almost 30,000 searches on the service.  

The largest number of searches was recorded by professional advisers looking to connect with a whole of market mortgage adviser – making up over 15,000 searches over the last year.  Almost 11,500 searches were generated by advisers looking for an independent financial adviser and almost 3,000 adviser searches were looking to connect with a solicitor.  

Unbiased.co.uk launched its Professional Connections service last September, following an increased drive from the adviser industry looking to generate and receive more quality referrals from other advisers outside their current professional network.  All of the advisers who have subscribed to unbiased.co.uk’s enhanced advertising package can opt into the Professional Connections service.

Advisers who are interested in having a profile page on Professional Connections need to subscribe to unbiased.co.uk’s enhanced advertising package.  An annual subscription costs £249 +VAT which gives an enhanced listing on the consumer searches, as well as a profile page on Professional Connections.   

Benefits of unbiased.co.uk’s enhanced advertising package include:

• An enhanced profile on the consumer ‘find an IFA’, ‘find a mortgage adviser’ and ‘find a solicitor’ searches, that include a ‘call me back’ and ‘send me info’ facility, as well as website, social media and email enabled links
• A profile on the Professional Connections page
• Monthly updates detailing how many consumers have viewed, or clicked on any part of your enhanced consumer profile

Karen Barrett, Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk, comments: “We launched our Professional Connections service as a result of increased adviser demand for high quality referrals from within the industry.  We have a longstanding history of putting consumers in touch with the best suited professional adviser for their needs, therefore transferring this knowledge to an ‘adviser to adviser’ referral is simply a natural extension of our services.  

“Our Professional Connections service has already enabled over 1,000 signed up advisers to expand their professional network.  The volume of searches during our first year of operating clearly shows that we have delivered a service that advisers have been looking for.  With an increased number of advisers moving towards a more ‘connected’ way of working with other professionals, we are confident that we will continue to see an increase in the numbers of advisers using this service, as well as the number of searches generated going forward.”

ENDS

Karen Barrett, Chief Executive, unbiased.co.uk: 020 7833 3131

Anna Schirmer/Anna Moulds/Ellie Brooke, Lansons Communications: 020 7294 3682

For expert commentary or case studies from over 150 media-friendly IFAs, journalists should visit www.unbiased.co.uk/bluebook.

About unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website

The unbiased.co.uk portal is a free and confidential UK-wide search matching consumers with local professional advisers: ‘find an IFA’, ‘find a mortgage adviser’, and ‘find a solicitor’, and is currently inviting registrations for its ‘find an accountant’ service.  These searches enable consumers to find professional advisers by postcode, area of specialism, qualification and payment method. In 2009, unbiased.co.uk fulfilled half a million searches for local, professional advice. 

IFA Promotion, the organisation behind unbiased.co.uk, is now in its 21st year, and was set up to promote the benefits of independent financial advice to consumers.  IFAP is sponsored by the following companies:

Registered Office: unbiased.co.uk is the consumer brand of IFA Promotion Ltd, 90 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5UB. Registered in Scotland: No. 114606