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Just Group to launch equity release with fixed early repayment charges – exclusive

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  • 15/06/2021
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Just Group to launch equity release with fixed early repayment charges – exclusive
Equity release lender Just Group is planning to roll out lifetime mortgages with fixed rate early repayment charges.

The lender has traditionally only offered its borrowers plans that have variable gilt-linked exit penalties.

The decision to offer a new charging structure, said the lender, will give allow advisers to offer their clients greater “personalisation”.

Mortgage Solutions understands that Just Group has been working on a fixed penalty lifetime mortgage option for some time and is readying a launch but a rollout date has yet to be confirmed.

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said: “We and others across the equity release market are constantly innovating our solution design to introduce more options so that advisers can increase the level of personalisation for clients.

“We think, and so do advisers, that offering customers a choice between gilt-based and fixed early repayment charges  is the right thing to do. We’ll be introducing this choice very shortly.”

Last month, Mortgage Solutions reported that Legal & General was trialling products with fixed penalties. The structure being tested spans 15 years, starting at a nine per cent penalty for early repayment in year one and stepping down to zero in year 16.

L&G said it was introducing the option in response to broker feedback for more choice.

Even though the 15-year long penalty would be one of the least competitive fixed charge structures on the market, brokers hailed the development as “highly significant”.

Aviva, on the largest lenders on the market which holds around a third of all lifetime mortgages in the market, has no plans to offer advisers a fixed early repayment charge (ERC) alternative.

A spokesperson for Aviva said: “Whilst we continually review our products to ensure they meet customer needs, [gilt-based early repayment charges] currently remains the single way we apply ERCs.”

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