In terms of the former, a raft of educational workshops have been launched lately to help uninitiated advisers learn more about equity release plans and the type of older homeowner they might be suitable for.
Bridgewater has teamed up with Just Retirement to host a series of seminars across the country in March and LV= also unveiled a three-step training programme.
It is positive to see providers taking steps to ensure the continued health of our market. While there may well be increased demand for equity release in future for a number of economic reasons, it can’t be expected for advisers and their clients to necessarily stumble across equity release unaided, which is why such proactivity is required.
It is vital that any advisers wanting to advise on equity release are up to speed on – and authorised for – both home reversion plans and lifetime mortgages so they are able to present their clients with the whole picture and not just part of the process.
It is also important for any intermediaries advising on equity release to be fully committed to the sector as merely ‘dabbling’ can be counterproductive for both their and their clients’ sake. Not forgetting it will probably raise the hackles of the FSA.
One last thing that caught my eye this month was Just Retirement’s Steve Lowe’s invocation of lenders to enter the equity release market in order to satisfy an impending ‘tsunami’ of demand. While I would respectfully reason that current need levels probably closer resemble a fast-flowing river than a tidal earthquake, there is every chance that the sector can burgeon in the coming years.
I would certainly agree however with the sentiment that the return of former key players like Prudential and the entrance of some high-street lenders would do wonders for the profile of the market.
The advertising and media attention this would generate wouldn’t just be of benefit to the lenders involved, but to the sector as a whole.
Chris Prior is sales and distribution manager at Bridgewater Equity Release
