Introducing Inbest's Debt Solutions Engine
The demand for debt advice services continues to rise, with the latest research from Citizens Advice revealing that 5 million people in the UK are currently experiencing a negative budget. However, the capacity of debt advice services is struggling to meet this ever-increasing demand.
At Inbest, we’ve supported Debt Advice Providers to streamline their advice processes by integrating automatic benefits checks and a benefits calculator into their advice journeys. We’re now taking a step forward in supporting Debt Advice Providers to streamline their debt advice processes with the launch of our Debt Solutions Engine.
Our Debt Solutions Engine is an API service that filters through available debt solutions for each customer’s debt arrears, tailoring the recommendations to their individual circumstances, financial situation, and the relevant regulatory framework.
Challenges for Debt Advisers
Debt Advice Providers face several barriers when it comes to deciding what are the best debt solutions for their customers. The main challenges include:
- Wide Range of Solutions: There is a wide range of potential debt solutions, from financial restructuring methods like equity release or debt consolidation to informal plans such as Debt Management Plans (DMP), and formal debt solutions like Bankruptcy. Going through these options is a detailed and time-consuming process, demanding extensive knowledge and experience.
- Difficult Choices: Providing debt advice involves guiding people through their options and their impact on their present and future financial options and commitments. Often, there is no ideal solution, only the least detrimental one. Advisers must carefully review and communicate the pros and cons of each option to their clients.
Because of this, providing debt advice is a lengthy and complex service that requires significant expertise and knowledge. With not enough trained advisers and long training times, it’s hard for Debt Advice Providers to keep up with the growing need for help.
Our Debt Solutions Engine
The Inbest Debt Solutions Engine is an API service that streamlines the process of analysing and filtering all available debt solutions for each customer’s debt arrears, tailoring the recommendations to their circumstances, financial situation, and the relevant regulatory framework. Our engine also offers details on each solution, highlighting how they work as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
The Inbest Debt Solution Engines covers the following debt solutions:
- Financial Products: Equity Release, Remortgage, Pension Withdrawal, and Debt Consolidation.
- Informal Debt Solutions: Debt Management (DMP), Debt Payment, Token Payment, Debt Payment Break, and Debt Settlement Offer (DSO).
- Formal Debt Solutions: Breathing Space, Debt Moratorium, Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), Administration Order, Debt Relief Order, Bankruptcy, Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), Protected Trust Deed, Minimal Asset Process (MAP), and Sequestration.
How Debt Advice Providers Use Our Debt Solutions Engine
Debt Advice Providers integrate our Debt Solutions Engine into their Debt Management Platforms, CRM, and Case Management Systems. This new feature offers the following benefits:
- Efficiency in the Advice Process: By narrowing down potential solutions for each debt type, the advice process gets simpler. This enables advisers to focus their time on understanding clients’ needs and identifying the most appropriate solutions for them.
- Facilitating Client Discussions: The outcomes of debt advice significantly impact clients’ financial well-being. A clear explanation of each debt solution, along with its pros and cons, helps advisers in discussing options with clients, assessing trade-offs, and choosing the solution best suited to the client’s current and future needs.
- Scalability and Consistency: The Debt Solutions Engine promotes a uniform advice journey, ensuring scalable and consistent debt advice services across Debt Advice Providers. It also speeds up the training process for new advisers by providing guided advice journeys.
- Compliance with FCA Consumer Duty: The engine supports advisers in discussing all possible debt solutions with clients, supporting compliance with the FCA Consumer Duty.
Finally, Debt Advice Providers use our Debt Solution Engine to offer self-service debt solutions calculators, enabling individuals to explore available debt solutions independently and generate qualified leads.
Discover the Debt Solutions Engine
Our Debt Solutions Engine is available for integration on our API portal. Get in touch if you would like to get a demo and explore how you can add this new service to your debt advice journey.
