Answers in Retirement Group (Air Group) has announced a new partnership with Knowledge Bank, integrating a dedicated criteria platform and a dedicated product sourcing platform in once place, a first in the later life lending arena.

Air Sourcing already contains a number of criteria options to be utilised by users; however, it said that adding Knowledge Bank’s thousands of additional criteria would now give its users “unprecedented insight” into the availability and compatibility of hundreds of later life products including retirement interest-only mortgages.

Knowledge Bank’s later life criteria information will be overlaid on top of Air Sourcing’s product results to be utilised by advisers. Advisers will also benefit from single-point data entry which will cut down on time spent re-keying customer information as well as an enhanced compliance audit trail.

On 11 May, Air Group’s Head of training, Helen Smith, will be running a training webinar which will walk advisers through the new integration and provide information and support on how to get the most out of it.

Stuart Wilson, chief executive officer of AIR Group, said: “The moulding of this new sourcing and criteria system together creates a new super software for advisers active in the later life lending space and provides a much more powerful tool in order to help them secure the most appropriate product for their clients.

“We’ve recognised the value of Knowledge Bank’s offering for some time and have seen it grow the range of criteria information it holds in the later life lending space over the past 12-18 months. By combining both platforms we can provide users with an unobtrusive addition that will greatly enhance the adviser’s experience and the outcomes they are able to offer clients.

“This is a huge step forward in the later life space and we are looking forward to working with Knowledge Bank and rolling the new platform out to advisers.”

Nicola Firth, CEO of Knowledge Bank, added: “This is an extremely exciting and powerful collaboration bringing together the two market-leading systems in their respective fields.

“Advisers in the later life sector have seen a dramatic change to the number of products available in the market over the last few years and therefore the technology to facilitate this has been developed at a rapid rate. But the impressive thing is that it has kept pace with the demands and Air Sourcing is widely recognised as the most comprehensive and feature-rich system in its field.

“This partnership will bolster that position even further ensuring that both experienced and new advisers to later life lending have everything they need at their fingertips to make confident and compliant recommendations to their clients.

“It has been a pleasure for us to work with the team at Air as their knowledge and passion for their sector is evident in every aspect of their system.”