Stipendium | The UK’s First Multi-Faceted Platform Addressing the Journeys of Life Events

Stipendium – The UK’s First Multi-Faceted Platform Addressing the Journeys of Life Events

20 June 2022

Stipendium, a platform designed to simplify and streamline life’s major events, from moving house to making a Will. Think of it as a kind of “Deliveroo of professional services”, with all the tools and services you need to address a major life event in one place. Stipendium has gone one step further by embedding the ability for each product to be bought individually, gifted to another, or rewarded by way of employee benefit.

Products:

Merge

Whether you’re a first-time buyer or moving up the ladder, Merge removes the stress of homebuying by providing all the services and information you need – from mortgage to move-in – all under one roof.
It’s not surprising that moving house ranks as one of life’s top three most stressful events. The process can often feel disjointed, daunting, and most of all confusing, especially for first-time buyers.
Luckily, Merge, the house-buyers concierge, is on a mission to revolutionise the experience by effectively taking the home-buyer by the hand through each step of the property purchasing process, reducing not only the time it takes, but also the cost.

With Merge, every aspect of house-buying is in one place and the whole process becomes transparent, meaning you remain in control. From securing a mortgage to completion day, Merge will be with you, with step-by-step guides, jargon busters and checklists, making it as much about education as it is about reducing hassle and cost.

Furthermore, Merge has handpicked leading mortgage advisors, surveyors and lawyers, so you don’t have to trawl through potentials. Customers can access their fee-free mortgage, conveyancing, property search tools, discounts on utilities and furniture, insurance products, removals, locksmiths… right down to a free takeaway! Plus, you can re-mortgage for life with no broker fees!

How do I access ‘Merge’? And how much does it cost?

Merge costs a one-off fee of £199. You just need a voucher code at the point of purchase to unlock your user journey.
Merge is accessible as a purchase for yourself, a gift, or an employee reward. It’s perfect for families to gift to younger generations as a helping hand on the property ladder.

Christina Melling, CEO of Stipendium says: “Buying a home can be an overwhelming experience…particularly alien to those embarking on the journey for the first time.

Merge will streamline and defragment this journey… It will also minimise errors and delays by giving house-buyers direct access and visibility over their sale, which in turn better empowers other stakeholders in the transaction such as estate agents, developers and mortgage advisers.

Merge is a comprehensive house purchase journey in a box, as not only do we take care of everything under one roof, but you can put a bow on our platform and gift it to someone you know to help them when they come to buy.”

Christina is the CEO of Stipendium, an innovative and revolutionary digital platform with a suite of products that have been carefully built to enable the nation to save time, money and reduce stress when dealing with key life events. Christina started her career in the legal sector where she worked in commercial litigation before embarking on a career change to venture into financial planning. Here, Christina worked as Head of Propositions designing and implementing insurance, investment and pension propositions for clients and employers.

With this experience, Christina understands how to assess, design and implement future-proofed offerings from a whole of market perspective that are geared towards tackling the gaps in education, innovation and technology.

Christina is passionate about revolutionising the realm of employee wellbeing. Her approach is forward-thinking as she adapts the tools to address employee wellbeing with facts, behaviours and statistics to align the Employee Value Proposition with the expectations of employers’ varying demographics. Christina’s ambition is to advance the scope of solutions to address employee wellbeing via well-packaged products that are tailored to the masses and for these to allow employers to invest in the lifecycles of their employees in a way that has never been done before.

Merge is just one of several products launched by Stipendium, a platform designed to simplify and streamline life’s major events, from moving house to making a will. Think of it as a kind of ‘Deliveroo of professional services.’
Our other products are ReMerge and Brace.

ReMerge

ReMerge is a diluted version of Merge and allows the nation’s homeowners access to a complete remortgage journey for just £99 including a broker fee-free mortgage from one of the country’s leading mortgage companies. ReMerge also allows access to a suite of tools to help make sure homeowners on the best deals and provides you with access to deals and discounts on furniture along with a JustEat voucher worth £25!

Brace

Our most recent product is called Brace.

Brace is a digital online DIY Will product that allows people to make their Will in 20 mins.

The cost of the product is £119 and it allows you to make unlimited changes to it for life at no extra cost.

This product is our newest addition to the suite of products we are developing to innovate and revolutionise the way in which the nation tackles major life events. This tool takes us one step further in educating the nation on the value and importance of this document while making it easily accessible, cost-effective, time-efficient and stress-free.

Just like our house-buying product, Merge, and our remortgage product, ReMerge, the product will be accessible in one of three ways – bought individually, gifted to another, or rewarded by way of employee benefit. We want to make the product as accessible as possible to everyone and to encourage first-time buyers to get their Will.

Brace is a great bolt-on to house-buying and financial planning conversations, particularly with intergenerational planning discussions being paramount as we prepare for the £5.5tn Great Wealth Transfer.

We are combatting the stigma around Wills. We believe that everyone should have one and that all adults should have the right to a choice about what matters most to them for whenever the time comes.

Three in five (59%) UK adults have not written a Will. This equates to 31 million people, whose property, financial and other assets could be left to someone they have not chosen when they die. Not only this, but 5.4 million people have no idea how to make one.

If we could unfold the future, the present would be our greatest care – Edward Counsel

For more information on our products and services, please visit us.

As featured in...

Latest Articles:

National Curriculum vs. the Real World

How far does our education really go in preparing young adults for what lies ahead?

Britons missing out on hundreds each month - the 'easiest way' to check your entitlement

With £15billion in benefits going unclaimed, there are tools available to help people uncover benefits they may be entitled to.