Lighthouse builds on Unison advice deal
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Trade union Unison has appoin-ted Lighthouse Group subsidiary LighthouseTemple to supply financial advice to its 1.3 million members on an exclusive basis.
Lighthouse says the deal will run for three years and builds on an existing relationship between the national arm of the group and the union.
Lighthouse Group joint chief executive Malcolm Streatfield says the previous informal partnership with Unison and a number of other unions generates around 16,000 client appointments each year and around 70 per cent of LighthouseTemple’s £10m annual revenue.
He expects this partnership to increase significantly through the new exclusivity deal which he says will generate “thousands” of new clients.
Streatfield says: “The unions are looked at more and more as guardians of the their members’ employment and in times such as we are experiencing curr-ently, unions come more into the fore. Their members expect them to act in their best interests and, as most matters are finance-related, one of the key services a union can provide is to put forward a quality advice operation that the union has vetted.”
He says that as the Government’s austerity measures start to bite and affect the public sector members of Unison, there will be a growing need for financial advice.
LighthouseTemple is hoping to secure further exclusive affinity partners.
Streatfield says: “We have a call centre based in Brighton and we are gearing that up to give telephone advice.
“An initial fact-find can be procured over the telephone and then it is agreed whether an adviser needs to visit the member or whether they can be dealt with through other means, so we are very much geared up to provide advice in whatever manner it needs to be given.”
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