Dunstan Thomas Announces Support for Ground-breaking Spire Financial Annuity Quotation Platform Service

PORTSMOUTH, England, March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Spire service offers Nucleus advisers a choice of enhanced annuities

Dunstan Thomas, the retirement solutions provider, has announced that its Imago technology has been embedded into annuity selection system which Spire Financial is now piloting with Nucleus' advisers.

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Nucleus advisers will gain secure web-based access to a panel of annuity providers which includes all specialist enhanced annuity players: Just Retirement, LV= and MGM Advantage.

The Spire annuity selection service is an industry first because it allows advisers to quote, underwrite, track and apply for enhanced annuities through the Nucleus Wrap Platform.
The service includes:

1. Intuitive Annuity Quote Portal that follows the advice process
2. Web-based pre-populated Enhanced Annuity quotes
3. Multiple quotes and multiple provider rates for each quote
4. Automated and electronic Common Quotation Form
5. Adviser tracking facility for both the Common Quotation Form and the Quotes
6. Guaranteed electronic quotes
7. Electronic application process through a pre-populated application form
   

The service has been designed to save advisers significant amounts of time in providing an enhanced annuity, whilst at the same time delivering the best quality underwriting information to annuity providers in order to maximise the level of retirement income for an adviser's client.

Richard Preston, director of Spire, commented:

"Dunstan Thomas' Imago delivers an industry proven technology platform with secure single sign-on infrastructure and data handling services for access to our panel of annuity providers. Partnership with Dunstan Thomas has been vital to delivering a highly reliable system capable of scaling rapidly as Spire's usage snowballs at Nucleus and via other platforms in due course.

"The service has been designed to save advisers time and provide the best possible annuity rate to their clients. Dunstan Thomas has helped us design an electronic process to fit in with both the adviser and the platform client."

The number of participating annuity providers will increase over the coming months. The system has been designed so that all underwriting information can be used in a whole of market context.

Christopher Read, chief executive, Dunstan Thomas, added:

"We took a financial stake in Spire Financial and delivered key technology to enable its multi-quote facility based on a single fact find because we could see a clear need in the market for better access to information and products from enhanced annuity providers. Too many people today are being short-changed when they select their default annuity. This must change and the ground-breaking service from Spire, delivered via Nucleus, is part of this evolution."

About Dunstan Thomas:

Dunstan Thomas is a leading retirement solutions provider offering a fully integrated range of components under the Imago brand. These components together provide the key back and front office administration tools needed by retirement product providers, third party administrators and financial advisers.  Imago's Front Office administration components include Illustrations, Reviews and stochastic models in Adviser Tools. Imago's Back Office tools include Administration and Property.  Dunstan Thomas' Imago offers a highly functional platform for servicing pension products. It also enables wrap platforms to automate calculations, illustrations and streamline reporting requirements.