Unbiased.co.uk's professional connections service sees nearly 20,000 'adviser to adviser' searches in the last 12 months

• Over 1,400 advisers have created a profile on Professional Connections
• The Professional Connections service has generated a massive 50,000 searches since launching in 2009

Unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website today publishes the second year user figures of its Professional Connections service.  Over the last 2 years, over 1,400 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 20,000 searches on the site in the last year.

The largest number of searches was recorded by professional advisers looking to connect with a whole of market mortgage adviser – making up over 9,300 searches over the last year. Almost 9,000 searches were generated by advisers looking for an independent financial adviserand over 2,000 adviser searches were looking to connect with a solicitor.  

Unbiased.co.uk’s Professional Connections service enables advisers from a range of specialist advice sectors to create new partnerships with experts outside their current professional network.  The purpose of this mutually beneficial relationship is to generate both business leads and quality referrals.

Advisers who are interested in setting up a profile page on Professional Connections need to first subscribe to unbiased.co.uk’s enhanced advertising package.  An annual subscription costs £299 + VAT and includes 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:

• A prominent advert on the consumer ‘find an IFA’, ‘find a mortgage adviser’ and ‘find a solicitor’ searches, that includes website and email links, as well as social media enabled links
• A profile on the Professional Connections page
• Monthly report detailing consumer activity on your account including stats on profile views, links clicked and call backs requested
• Access to the Bluebook online for independent financial advisers, a service which allows you to raise you and your companies profile in the media
• An opportunity to join our media panel for solicitors and mortgage advisers

We recently launched our free and confidential ‘find an accountant’ search, which is continuing to grow. The next stage of development will involve the upgrade of our Professional Connections service to include accountants at the start of 2012.

Karen Barrett, Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk, comments: “We launched our Professional Connections service following increased demand from the industry for high quality business to business referrals.  We have a longstanding reputation of helping consumers find the best suited professional adviser for their financial needs, transferring this knowledge to enable advisers to expand their professional network is simply a natural extension of our services.  

“Our Professional Connections service has already helped over 1,400 advisers get in touch with other professionals.  The volume of searches over the last two years clearly shows that we have delivered a service that advisers have been looking for.  As an increased number of advisers move towards a more integrated way of working with other professionals, we are confident that we will continue to see a greater number of advisers using this service going forward.”

For more information contact:

Anna Schirmer/ Lisa Grando/ Emily Falla, 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.

Twitter: @unbiased_co_uk

LinkedIn: Unbiased.co.uk - Online networking for professional advisers

About unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website

The unbiased.co.ukportal is a free and confidential UK-wide search matching consumers with local professional advisers: ‘find an IFA’, ‘find a mortgage adviser’, ‘find a solicitor’, and ‘find an accountant’. These searches enable consumers to find professional advisers by postcode, area of specialism, qualification and payment method. In 2010, unbiased.co.ukfulfilled around 450,000 searches for local, professional advice. 

Unbiased Ltd (owned by IFA Promotion Ltd) promotes the benefits of independent financial advice to consumers.  Unbiased Ltd is sponsored by the following companies: