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Time is now for equity release rebrand

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  • 13/08/2015
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More than two-thirds (70%) of respondents to a Mortgage Solutions poll believe the equity release brand needs a change of image in order to distance itself from historic negative associations.

Following calls for a rebrand of the industry from Bower Retirement Services chief corporate officer Andrea Rozario, brokers have branded the current term ‘too generic’ saying it isolates equity release from the wider mortgage market. Some 30% of brokers did not think a rebrand was necessary.

Mark Gregory, director of Equity Release Supermarket, said amending the conventional equity release term could give greater clarity to customers who were in need of such products.

“The term equity release is too generic which for our industry does not denote or clarify who the products apply too. This segregates our schemes from the conventional mortgage market. Specifically, the term lifetime mortgage does exactly what it says on the tin and encompasses all the current schemes we have available with the individual products that can be categorised further, such as hybrid schemes.

“Changing from equity release now would be a suitable time for this to be achieved. As the market is now in a state of massive growth, with a new generation of potential clients, now would be the best time to see the industry morph into a new era,” he said.

Managing director of Legal & General’s individual retirement business, Bernie Hickman, said the firm had decided not to use the term equity release when launching its lifetime mortgage proposition as it did not want to impose limitations on the products it could develop for customers.

This week, Legal & General announced it was focusing on developing a hybrid mortgage product, which combines the features of a standard residential mortgage with elements of a lifetime mortgage.

“We’re interested in exploring what role we can play in the wider retirement lending space as well as with lifetime mortgages. We didn’t want to brand ourselves as something that limited so we can offer good value products to customers,” said Hickman.

“Some of the negativity surrounding equity release is related to products sold several years ago, and also family, particular sons and daughters, finding out about the deal after the transaction has completed which as an industry we really need to try and avoid. We should be doing all we can to involve the family in the decision-making process.”

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