Scottish Widows is set to move all its Letter of Authority (LoA) servicing through Origo’s Unipass LoA digital channel, becoming the first major UK provider to mandate a single digital channel for LoAs.

The firm said this demonstrated a significant investment towards a fast and fully automated experience for advisers.

Through the mandation and building automation behind the digital channel, Scottish Widows is aiming to reduce servicing times to 15 minutes for certain business areas by the end of 2026.

The mandating of Unipass LoA will come into effect in mid-July and applied to all of Scottish Widows’ workplace pensions, retirement, platform, protection, and longstanding products.

Scottish Widows selected Origo’s service to reduce the administrative burden on advisers by providing a single place to manage LoA requests across all UK providers, with 80 per cent already holding the required Unipass certification.

“Our ambition is clear: to offer the advisers who use our service LoA responses in 15 minutes, not 15 days,” said Scottish Widows head of Adviser Lab, Ed Parker.

“We believe this is how LoAs should be done – moving at pace, creating a smoother experience and better results for clients.

“With full automation coming later this year, the time is right to mandate Unipass LoA.

“Advisers will begin to feel the benefits of a single digital experience, faster response times and less admin, enabling them to quickly move the advice process and hold client conversations focused on trust and best possible outcomes.”

This article originally appeared in our sister publication Wealth Investment News.

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