These new services have been introduced in response to feedback received from financial advisers and their colleagues.

The new services available via the NS&I Adviser Helpline are:

• Speed of access: Requests for information on clients’ NS&I holdings will now be almost instant, the firm claims.  Previously, requests could only be made by post and it could take up to 2-3 weeks for a response to be provided.
• More client information available to advice firms:
  • Balances and valuations;
  • Annual and ad-hoc statements;
  • Maturity dates;
  • Transaction information;
  • Other account details NS&I holds.
• New indefinite ‘Client Letter of Authority Template’: Letters of authority will now be held on file by NS&I indefinitely. Previously, firms had to supply a new Letter of Authority, signed by the customer, every time they requested information. Going forwards, only this new template will be accepted by NS&I, but once in place it will remain on file.
• ‘Terms of Business Agreement’: There will be a new agreement between NS&I and each advice firm who wishes to have access to information on their clients’ NS&I holdings. This document forms the legal relationship between NS&I and a financial advice firm, and helps protect the relationship between both parties and their mutual customers.
• Whole firm access: All staff in an advice firm (e.g. financial planners, financial advisers, paraplanners and other support staff) will be able to have access to client information, as long as the firm has signed and supplied a ‘Terms of Business Agreement’ and the relevant ‘Client Letter of Authority’ is in place.

Later in 2018, NS&I is planning to launch online access to information on clients’ NS&I holdings. This will be via secure log-in on nsandi-adviser.com.

Andrew Pike, head of intermediary relationships at NS&I, said: “These new features of NS&I’s Adviser Helpline mean that NS&I is able to provide a faster and more comprehensive service to advice firms.

“We know that advisers often recommend NS&I products and are very supportive of our unique security guarantee, but they also tell us we could make life easier for them when contacting us. Therefore we expect these new enhancements will make a real difference.”