LifeSearch has promoted Nick Rixon to the newly created position of head of business protection and expert advice.
Rixon (pictured) is now responsible for the company’s business protection, wealth protection and complex risk offering.
They have been merged into a single function given that they are strategic growth areas for the company with more cases requiring specialist input in the face of rising complexity.
LifeSearch said it had seen a 28% increase in business protection conversations this year, alongside rising inheritance tax-related (IHT) enquiries and growing underwriting complexity.
Yet it added that only only one in four of its customers were on non-standard terms, which it said underlined the growing importance of specialist and integrated advice and insurer support.
Rixon has worked at LifeSearch for almost 13 years, holding advisory, leadership and specialist roles.
He was a senior protection adviser for five years, working on complex protection cases, before spending six years in leadership positions.
Until recently he was a senior advice leader in insurer relationships, working with provider partners to strengthen ties and improve outcomes for advisers and clients.
‘Strategic growth areas’
Debbie Kennedy, chief executive of LifeSearch, said business protection and wealth protection were strategic growth areas for the company.
“More clients are looking to protect the value they have built, whether through their business, their estate or their wider financial plans,“ she said.
“Nick’s appointment strengthens our specialist capability at exactly the right time.
“His experience makes him ideally placed to lead this growing area of the business and help ensure protection advice is embedded alongside broader business, wealth and estate planning conversations.”
Rixon added: “For business owners and high-net-worth clients, protecting the value they’ve created is as important as creating it in the first place, yet in my experience, protection is still one of the last conversations they have with their adviser.
“Having spent years working directly with advisers and clients on the most complex cases, I’ve seen how much value is lost when protection sits outside the wider financial plan rather than at the heart of it.
“My focus in this role is to make sure that wherever a client’s needs are complex – whether that’s business protection, IHT planning or high-net-worth cover – they get advice that’s properly integrated into wider financial planning.
“That’s what will make the biggest difference to outcomes as demand in this space continues to grow,” he added.