Your pension in your pocket
Our app makes it easy to keep an eye on your pension and plan for the future.
Scottish Widows moves Letter of Authority servicing to Unipass LoA
Ed Parker
Head of Adviser Lab at Scottish Widows
Scottish Widows has announced it will be moving all of its Letter of Authority (LoA) servicing through Origo’s Unipass LoA digital channel. As the first major provider in the UK to mandate a single, digital channel for LoAs, it demonstrates a significant investment and step toward a free-to-use, fast and fully automated experience for advisers.
By mandating Unipass LoA and building automation behind this strategic digital channel, Scottish Widows is ultimately aiming to reduce servicing times from the current industry standard average of 15 days to just 15 minutes for certain business areas before the end of 2026.
The mandating of Unipass LoA – which will come into effect in mid-July – applies to all Scottish Widows’ Workplace Pensions (member LoA request), Retirements, Platform, Protection, and Longstanding products.
Origo’s Unipass LoA service was selected to reduce the administrative burden on advisers by providing a single place to manage LoA requests across all UK providers for free, with 80% of them already holding the required Unipass certificate.
Ed Parker, Head of Adviser Lab at Scottish Widows, said:
“Our ambition is clear: to offer the advisers who use our service LoA responses in 15 minutes, not 15 days. We believe this is how LoAs should be done – moving at pace, creating a smoother experience and better results for clients.
“With full automation coming later this year, the time is right to mandate Unipass LoA. Advisers will begin to feel the benefits of a single digital experience, faster response times and less admin, enabling them to quickly move the advice process and hold client conversations focused on trust and best possible outcomes.”
Download full press release (PDF, 130KB)
Notes
About Scottish Widows
Founded in 1815, Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s largest digital bank and financial services group. With more than £232bn assets under administration and more than 6 million customers, Scottish Widows’ award-winning product range includes workplace and individual pensions, annuities, life cover, critical illness and income protection, as well as savings and investment products.
More than 2 million customers access Scottish Widows products and services through the Lloyds Bank and Scottish Widows apps, in addition to accessing directly through independent financial advisers. The Scottish Widows Platform is trusted by more than 18,000 advisers and 5,400 advice firms, which manage the pensions and investments of almost 166,000 clients.