PRIMIS and Personal Touch Financial Services (PTFS) have added Guardian Financial Services to their protection panels.

Members of the networks now have access to a range of life and critical illness insurance products.

Guardian, which recently launched in the UK, says it aims to restore faith in the protection market through providing intermediaries with “forward-thinking underwriting and liberating technology”.

Key product features include:

• Payouts based on the word of a UK consultant for all the most commonly claimed for critical illness conditions – no detailed medical reports needed
• Terminal illness that pays out on diagnosis of certain conditions, one being stage 4 cancer, even if life expectancy is more than 12 months
• Payout planner allows customers to nominate beneficiaries when they apply
• Cover improvements to existing policies as well as new

The announcement follows several recent additions to PRIMIS’ general insurance panel, including The Source and Uinsure.

Vikki Jefferies (pictured), proposition director at PRIMIS and PTFS, said: “Our motto is ‘every pound of lending is a pound that needs protecting’ and the addition of Guardian to our protection panel supports our mission to ensure our brokers, and in turn their clients, have access to a diverse range of products.

“The importance of protection products can so often be undervalued when in fact it should be the moral obligation of a broker, and the industry, to ensure customers are equipped with the knowledge to cover themselves adequately and appropriately.

“We will continue to evolve our protection proposition to fulfil this goal, providing our brokers with access to best in class providers and tools to do just that.”

Mike Devaney, head of strategic partnerships at Guardian Financial Services, added: “We’re absolutely delighted to be joining the PRIMIS and PTFS protection panel. At Guardian, our ambition is for every family to have protection that they truly believe in and the only way to achieve this is if protection is sold with quality advice. That’s why advisers are our only route to market and why we’ve designed our products to fit with the advice process.

“We know how important this is to the PRIMIS and PTFS networks and this new partnership will mean more advisers have access to a range of products that will deliver certainty, clarity and fairness – all important points when having protection conversations with clients. PRIMIS will provide us with a platform to ensure we can help as many people as possible to protect their families.”