iPipeline has reported a 28% year-on-year increase in new business processing for the life market.

This equates to £40bn in life cover, £10bn in critical illness cover and £3bn in income protection cover for the UK marketplace.

Usage of SolutionBuilder, the research, quote and application solution for advisers, grew 50% year-on-year, and was up 35% in Q4 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

The number of clients quoted protection is up 21% year-on-year, continuing the trend seen in previous results.

Multi-benefit sales via the platform also continue to grow, now representing 14% of all protection transactions, up from just 3% in July 2015. Income Protection sales grew 34%. This coincides with the increased usage of SolutionBuilder, as the platform helps with selling more than one benefit, produces a simple comparison of single and multi-benefit products, expedites new business submissions, and improves compliance recording.

Ian Teague, managing director at iPipeline, said: “These processing platform figures demonstrate the continuing success of our proposition in the marketplace and the impact improving technology is having on advisers and their clients. We are continuing to see growth and therefore helping more advisers provide more financial security for more clients. With the recent acquisition of TCP LifeSystems, we expect our expanded platform to have an increasingly positive impact on sales of life and pensions products in the UK.

“We will continue to work with, and listen to, advisers to build on this momentum and not only maintain our currents levels of service but exceed expectations in the future.”