Mortgage Solutions sat down with Carter to speak about his successes over his four-decade career and the legacy he wanted to leave.
Carter began his working life as an engineer before switching paths in 1983, joining Prudential as an insurance agent.
This was where his career in financial services started.
Carter said: “I did that job for a few years, then I realised that if I wanted to get on in this industry, I needed to drive myself.
“I started on a path into management and did every course going. I went to university at the age of 30 to get a management qualification and took on every management role.” This gave him a good grasp of the financial services sector, he said.
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Engineering equity release
Carter worked at Prudential for 14 years until the “whole industry changed” and door-to-door sales stopped being a common practice. That part of the business closed, and Carter got the opportunity to join Norwich Union to build its new equity release business.
With a team of three, Carter “built it from scratch”, marking his “first foray” into the later life market.
“Within a year, we went from having no business to a very successful business with 130 advisers out on the road. It was probably one of the most exciting periods of my career,” Carter said.
He stayed there for four years as Norwich Union rebranded to CGNU, then Aviva Equity Release.
“So, Aviva’s business was started by me and a couple of other guys, and it’s obviously grown significantly since then,” Carter added.
Aviva Equity Release later merged with its insurance division, and Carter’s role shifted to onboarding independent financial advisers (IFAs) as the firm moved direct‑to‑consumer (D2C).
He later joined Millfield IFA to build its equity release business as head of equity release and Northern sales director, where he helped the Southern-based firm expand its presence.
In that role, Carter introduced IFAs to lifetime mortgages, gaining a reputation as a specialist.
He also worked with the Equity Release Council, called Safe Home Income Plans (SIPP) at the time, solidifying himself as an industry spokesperson.
Carter stayed at Millfield IFA for four years before the business was sold, then returned to Prudential as its head of business development for lifetime mortgages.
Prudential became successful, growing its market share from 7% to 27% within a year, which Carter described as one of his biggest achievements.
He added: “I was promoted to sales director, and we had a huge amount of success at my time at Prudential. Whilst I was there as a sales director, I got to know Age Partnership and Andrew Thirkill, the owner, quite well.”
Prudential decided to pivot again, and the lifetime mortgage business was closed.
Carter said: “I was the last one. I closed that business down, turned the light off as we exited on the final day. We looked after everybody in the business, and more importantly, looked after our customers throughout that process.”
The birth of Pure Retirement
He decided to take six months off work, but that “only lasted six days”, and then he was approached by William Harrison Allen to sort out his business, Cavendish Equity Release, with a six-month plan to make it profitable.
“That six months lasted two-and-a-half years; it was a really good business, but it didn’t get the investment it needed to take it forward. So, I decided that the time was right to move on,” he noted.
Then, Carter was approached to set up a lending business for the owners of Age Partnership, and Pure Retirement was established.
He said: “I joined on the first of May, 13 years ago, and was presented with a very basic structure in terms of a business plan, with little detail.”
Once again, Carter was tasked with starting a proposition from scratch and saw the lender become a “major player”, competing with the bigger brands he previously worked for.
Lessons and legacy
Carter said setting up Pure Retirement was a standout moment in his career and thanked Thirkill for trusting him with the opportunity.
Aside from the Lifetime Achievement award, other standout moments include building the equity release team at Aviva and winning Northern Business Leader of the Year twice and Director of the Year twice.
Carter said his biggest learning was knowing how to be flexible and adapt.
“Adapt to different situations, adapt to different markets, adapt to different challenges.
“I’ve worked in large corporates, and they are very different animals to owner-owned businesses,” he added.
These lessons taught him to trust people within a business, allow them to develop, do the job, while supporting and coaching them.
“Don’t overmanage. Don’t micromanage. That doesn’t help people flourish,” Carter added.
Many people helped shape his career, Carter said, adding: “One of my very early managers really set the tone about how I should go about developing my career and myself”.
He acknowledged his wife for supporting him throughout, as he worked across the country.
As for who he hoped to inspire, Carter said the people who worked for him in the present and the past, including those who had gone on to bigger, better things.
He said: “I still get calls now from people who are in senior roles and started in a junior role, working for me, who tell me they really appreciate the support I’ve given over them the years.”
The next chapter
Carter revealed he was stepping down as CEO of Pure Retirement, saying that in that time, he has seen people come and go, but the business maintained a great team. Simon Hayton will take over as CEO.
Hayton was his “right-hand man”, Carter said, and they have “developed and grown together”, so it would be a seamless transition.
“I’ll step away, he’ll step in, and the business won’t notice much change. That’s down to how we’ve operated as a team and the culture that we have within the business,” he added.
He said 2025 was a tough market, but Pure Retirement improved on the previous year’s performance and increased its market share.
Its servicing business is also growing, as firms brought their closed loan books to Pure Retirement to manage and service, such as Bradford and Bingley, Northern Rock and Mortgage Express.
Carter added: “That part of the business really continued to grow last year, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Carter said he would continue to be known for his passion for the industry and beliefs in what it can do for borrowers, in light of changing economic climates.
He does not intend to “sail off into the sunset” following his Lifetime Achievement Award win, and although he would no longer be the CEO of Pure Retirement, he would not fully retire.
Carter added: “I live and breathe this sector. I’m passionate about what it does, and I hope to stay engaged in it and continue to help develop it for years to come.
“It’s the end of an era in many respects, but it’s the start of something new in some respects, but also that I’ll still be here. I’ll still be championing the sector, shall we say, wherever possible, and helping to try making development.”
Where can later life lending go?
Speaking of the future of later life lending, Carter said he hoped the market would become mainstream and more accepted by borrowers as part of retirement planning, not a product of last resort.
He added: “The government, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the industry are finally on the same path and going in the same direction. The government is recognising what an impact this sector could have and the FCA are now finally understanding it, getting behind it and looking at ways to improve it.”
He said there would be more innovation as lending rules relaxed and the product’s reputation would “improve tremendously”.
