LifeSearch and All in Place Partnership Puts Protection at Heart of SME Financial Planning

LifeSearch, one of the UK’s leading protection advice specialists, has announced a new partnership with All in Place, the online software and services platform for the accountancy sector. The collaboration will enable accountancy firms to offer their SME clients seamless access to life insurance and business protection solutions and fee-free protection expertise, enhancing their own advisory capability and extending the value of their service proposition.

The partnership addresses a significant gap in the market. Research¹ from All in Place reveals that 78% of UK accountancy firms rarely or never conduct risk assessments to review their clients’ protection against ill-health and early death – leaving business owners and their families exposed to potentially devastating financial consequences.

All in Place’s integrated planning platform enables accountants to develop comprehensive corporate and personal financial plans that consider both business and personal finance needs in tandem. Through this partnership, All in Place firms and their clients gain direct access to LifeSearch’s team of specialist business protection advisers who can secure tailored cover from an extensive range of insurers. This means accountants can address both their clients’ individual and business protection needs without requiring in-house insurance expertise.

Ed Axon, LifeSearch Chief Growth Officer, said: “Business owners are diligent about protecting their tangible assets – their buildings, equipment, and legal liabilities – but often overlook one of their most valuable assets: themselves.

“This partnership with All in Place represents a significant step forward in our mission to protect people properly. By enabling accountants to take a holistic view of their clients’ business and personal protection needs, we’re helping to close a critical gap that leaves families and businesses vulnerable. Many business owners don’t realise they can arrange life cover tax-efficiently through their business. When protection is integrated into broader financial planning, with specialist advice, clients get comprehensive cover that truly safeguards what matters most.”

Richard Bertin, Chief Executive, All in Place, said: “We are delighted that LifeSearch has chosen All in Place as a strategic partner. Our collaboration makes it easier for our accountancy firms to help clients obtain specialist advice from market leaders, in what can be seen as a crowded and confusing marketplace. We have simplified the process for clients to identify who they could use by offering access digitally to one of the leading protection brokers in the UK.

“All in Place recognises there is an advice gap in the UK and there is an important role for the accountant to play in offering solutions to their clients to manage risk. Business owners are often time and cash poor, so want peace of mind and a pathway to quality, specialist advisors when considering the protection needs for them, their family and the business. We have created All in Place Now, as a standalone division, to support accountants and their clients get straight through to best of breed advice, when a need is identified, and often when the client simply doesn’t know where to go.”

Georgina Rollings, Co-CEO at Starfish Accounting and an All in Place client, was part of a pilot test of LifeSearch’s services and reviewed various term life insurance and income protection policies from a personal and business ownership perspective. She said: “We had a level of critical life cover in place with a previous broker. We have been blown away by the more comprehensive offering at a lower price that we’ve been able to source through LifeSearch. It has given us reassurance for the future and having been through a simple and convenient process with the LifeSearch team, are able to highly recommend it should our clients need protection for themselves, their families or their businesses.”

LifeSearch is one of the UK’s leading protection advice specialists, blending technology with expert human advice. Since 1998, it has helped over one million people, families and businesses secure 1.7 million policies through its team of 280 specialist advisers. LifeSearch has innovated by embedding protection into wider conversations, reaching consumers in underserved markets to support its ambition to protect people properly.