Iress has announced that Shepherds Friendly’s income protection products are now available on Iress’s The Exchange platform.

Listing its products on The Exchange is part of a wider Shepherds Friendly strategy to make sure that more consumers have access to the cover and benefits they offer, and to streamline the application process for advisers and their clients.

Shepherds Friendly also recently launched a new application process, available exclusively to intermediaries. The Simplified Application was rolled out in May and offers an alternative application route, based on moratorium underwriting, that could see advisers get cover for their clients in less than five minutes when terms are met. This new application process is available alongside the existing fully underwritten option directly from Shepherds Friendly and a select range of comparison platforms, including quotes generated on Iress’s The Exchange.

Dave Miller, Iress’s executive general manager, commercial, said: “We’re thrilled to have Shepherds Friendly on board with The Exchange, and to be able to offer advisers access to an increasingly broad range of income protection products.

“It’s one of our aims to provide our customers with access to the most comprehensive range of products in the market and Shepherds Friendly are an important part of that.”

Antony Uttley, Shepherds Friendly’s chief sales officer, added: “This is a really exciting partnership that we’ve been eager to share with our intermediaries. We hope that joining The Exchange, combined with our new simplified application, will make applying for our Income Protection quicker and easier than ever.”