Case study: How an equity release qualification compares to CeMAP

by: Tina Bowles, regional development manager, Furness Building Society
  • 18/08/2015
  • 0
Case study: How an equity release qualification compares to CeMAP
Tina Bowles talks through her experience of studying for and successfully completing the CeRER qualification in equity release advice, and how it compares with a standard CeMAP exam.

Having a forward-thinking attitude and a compulsive need to understand in-depth how things work from beginning to end finds me often studying and researching before an event and such has been the case with my climb through financial services over the last 20 years.

Being a regional development manager with the Furness which has an ‘individual’ underwriting approach, means a lot of hands-on enquiries and our willingness to consider special circumstances has led me to see the value in obtaining a better understanding of equity release and its opportunities.

Significant changes to equity release products and regulation have brought about an exciting potential for people to enhance their income or lifestyle and stay in control of how they want their later years to pan out.

To me, it’s about giving people choices and for my part having the expertise to deliver the knowledge and right advice.

As part of my ongoing development, Furness purchased the course content for equity release, which I chose as a manual and I passed the exam first time.

The manual content concentrates on getting the right product for your client’s needs, while taking into account everything that can affect entitlement to existing benefits. It also gives the client more options with regards to long-term care. I used to consider equity release as a product for those that just wanted to release some cash for retirement aspirations, but in reality that is only a small part of what it can be used for.

Study time was approximately 15 hours over a period of two weeks using the manual alone and the exam was easy to navigate through. The test itself is in two parts, firstly 50 multiple choice questions of which I found study reading repetitively was the best way to revise.

The second part consists of three case studies and due to my experience of investments, pensions, regulation and mortgage advice, I gained a merit pass on this section.

Comparing it to the CeMAP qualification before I had any real experience of day-to-day mortgage applications, underwriting, legislation changes, law and regulation means for the first manual study the time taken was 10 weeks consisting of one to two hours per day, and six weeks for each of the others.

I would consider CeRER a definite must for any adviser who is able to take this exam as it helps specifically for those whose current mortgage terms are taking them into retirement or want to move house at pension age.

With no immediate plans to change my current role I would hope to be actively moving into the area of advising on equity release options to customers over the next couple of years. I feel the attitude, need and desire for this area of advice is increasing and the stigma of needing or even wanting to use your unencumbered home as a way of paying off debt is also softening.

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