In an industry first, Avelo has worked with leading providers Aviva, Legal & General, Just Retirement and Partnership to develop the electronic common quote form which is a more efficient, online version of the traditional paper common quotation request form. It also features the very latest question set agreed by all the major providers enabling instant quotes to be returned from across the market.

The electronic common quotation form is available on Avelo Exchange as part of a major service enhancement which Avelo is hailing as the „next generation‟ annuities service. The service will also offer a new „client send‟ option which for the first time allows clients to complete their medical and lifestyle data online by themselves before submitting it to their adviser via a secure website.

The completely electronic service offers a faster way of processing enhanced annuity business creating significant time and cost savings for intermediaries. During the pilot phase, intermediary testers reported time savings of up to 30% per enhanced annuity case when using the electronic process and client send option instead of their normal manual processes.
Other key benefits for intermediaries include:

• Improved profit margins on enhanced annuity business.
• Faster case completion and the ability to deliver a more efficient client service.
• Being able to offer a cheaper, more competitive self-service option as part of their annuities proposition.
• The opportunity to win more business and accommodate clients with smaller-pots.

Paul Yates, Strategy and Product Development Director at Avelo, commented "The paper common quotation request form was a massive achievement in the industry but Avelo is in the unique position to take it to the next level. The electronic common quote form represents a radical overhaul of enhanced annuity business by significantly streamlining the process and resulting in valuable time and cost savings for intermediaries.
"This next generation annuities service benefits consumers, intermediaries and providers. Transforming business processes is in everyone's interest as we approach RDR and improving efficiency and delivering value to clients will be the key to success."

Sally Underdown from Lovewell Blake, a financial planning firm that was involved in the pilot phase, said „The new service enhances our annuities proposition to clients and speeds the whole process up. We are moving to more services over the internet and will be offering this to all our clients as a way of increasing efficiency for the RDR."