Equity release broker Key has created three new senior roles within its estate planning department.

The team is now structured around four core functions – sales, operations, product management and business development.

Neil Naismith (pictured, centre) has joined as head of sales, overseeing the front-end telephony and estate planner teams. He previously oversaw a field based team of 120 self-employed estate planners at Just Wills Group and also built his own will-writing business.

Meanwhile, Melanie Wain (pictured, left) has been appointed as head of operation. She previously worked at Russell, Jones and Walker and will oversee the delivery of will-drafting, customer services and administration. Along with optimising processes and procedures, Wain will implement new product and service offerings to customers.

Having joined the business in March 2018, Nicole Porter (pictured, right) has transitioned across from her role managing operations and been appointed product manager. Her role will focus on launching new products, propositions, delivering system developments and new sales collateral which will help re-engineer the end-to-end customer journey.

The trio will all report to Peter Julier, Key’s director of later life services.

Julier said: “With the estate planning market growing rapidly it is essential that we have the right people in the right place, I am absolutely delighted that Neil is joining Key at such an exciting time for the business and very pleased that Melanie and Nicole have progressed within the company.

“With all bringing an extensive depth of knowledge of this sector, they will be great assets to our team and our customers.”

Will Hale, CEO of Key, added: “With the demand for later life financial products growing rapidly, it is essential that we have the right people in place to ensure we evolve our estate planning proposition and offer a consistently high level of service to our customers.

“Mel, Neil and Nicole will all use their experience to help us continue to build our offering to customers beyond the later life lending market and I look forward to working with them.”