Equity release advisory firm Key has boosted its estate planning team with the recruitment of Andrew Parkinson to the new position of head of sales and operations.

To further support its over-55 customers, Key added estate planning and will writing to its services in 2007 and since then it has helped almost 30,000 customers with important legal decisions from Lasting Power of Attorney to arranging a Will.

Parkinson joins Key with  20 years experience working within the industry including as group operations director at Legal Hub Group, director at Integral Solutions and head of legal services at two national accident management companies.

He is also a member of the Society of Will Writers.

Part of his role will involve growing the internal culture as well as developing customer service, operational processes and systems to meet the growing need for estate planning amongst the over-55s.

Will Hale, CEO at Key, said: “At Key, we believe it is vital to provide customers with as much support as possible when they are looking to secure their later life finances. As the largest equity release advisory firm in the UK, we have often found many customers do not have a current Will in place which is why we started the estate planning side of our business after listening to customer feedback and to further support the needs of our customers.

“Andrew has worked in the legal services industry for two decades and he will only strengthen our rapidly evolving offering. I am pleased to welcome Andrew to the team and I am looking forward to working with him in the future.”

Andrew Parkinson, head of sales and operations at Key estate planning, added: “It’s an interesting time to be starting a new role during the coronavirus pandemic but I have been welcomed into the business and quickly got stuck in. I am leading a new team which in the current times is an interesting experience but one I am enjoying.

“I am very much looking forward to using my experience to grow and develop the estate planning side of the business and it’s great to be working with a market leader in the retirement finances sector.”