November 06, 2020

News from our members

Advise Wise

Beginning of October, Advise Wise introduced Ask Jane legal month, a special edition of the popular Ask Jane series, dedicated to answer advisers’ questions on all Lifetime Mortgages legal aspects.

Supporting advisers is always at the core of what we do and in these challenging times we want to help advisers improve their knowledge, as we try to demystify some tricky aspects and generate a better understanding of the legal process.

For the whole month of October, a new episode is released every Thursday on Advise Wise Upskill page and it’s available as a video and as a podcast to listen to on the go.

To watch all Ask Jane episodes visit https://advisewise.com/upskill/

The new Ask Jane legal month episodes are hosted by Jane Hanlon, our Mortgage Club Manager and Peter Barton, Partner and Head of Equity Release at Ashfords, from our specialist solicitor panel.

Jane and Peter share their experience on the field and answer the most popular  questions on legal matters, with Peter covering the legal topics from a specialist solicitor’s point of view, to provide comprehensive answers for Advise Wise members.

Ask Jane legal month will conclude on Thursday 29 October with a live Q&A session where advisers will be able to participate and ask their legal questions directly to Jane and Peter. To register for the live Q&A session visit:  https://landing.advisewise.com/ask-jane-legal-month-live-session

Canada Life

Canada Life has recently announced a number of product changes, including enhancements to all its Capital Select Options for home finance customers.

The changes by Canada Life offer customers greater flexibility across the entire Capital Select range. Interest rates for its Super Lite and Platinum options have been reduced by 10bps, whilst the LTVs on these products, ranging from a 0.5% uplift for Platinum Plus to a 2.0% uplift for Gold Plus, have increased.

The Capital Select Options range allows customers to borrow up to £1 million against their property and make payments from as little as £50 to a maximum of 10% of the initial loan amount each year without incurring an early repayment charge. These products also come with a range of optional features, including 3% cashback.

In addition to these changes, Canada Life has also reduced the interest rates across its Lifestyle range, with Lifestyle Lite dropping by 10bps to its lowest ever rate at 2.55% MER (2.58% AER). Canada Life’s Lifestyle Options are interest roll-up lifetime mortgages, allowing customers to unlock a one-off, tax-free payment from their home with no monthly payments.

Alice Watson, head of marketing, Insurance, Canada Life, said: “Given the events of the last six months, we’re pleased to be able to make these enhancements to both our Capital Select and Lifestyle Options. Customers need flexibility and certainty now more than ever before, and these products allow them to continue living in their homes, while releasing the money tied up in their property, whether that be to cover any unexpected costs, boost their retirement income or even fund home improvements.”

All Canada Life Lifetime Mortgage products come with optional inheritance guarantee protection and have a no negative equity guarantee.

You can find more information at www.canadalife.co.uk.

more2life

As a leading equity release lender, more2lie have a deep interest in not only supporting advisers, but helping them to better serve their customers. As part of this, more2life recently launched their Vulnerability Report which used three years’ worth of advice data and new consumer data to better understand how this challenging topic is approached as the FCA consolation on vulnerability drew to a close.  One of the key findings included the fact that 30% of homeowners over the age of 55 have felt vulnerable when making a financial decision.

Additionally, providing flexibility and choice to the later life lending market, more2life refreshed its ‘Tailored’ product range and now offers fixed early repayment charges (ERCs) on all its products.  With downsizing protection and other features available, the vast majority of customers do not incur an ERC but this move was made to make things as simple as possible for those who do.

AIR Group

With significant ambitions for growth but a focus on ensuring their clients receive the best possible service, Air Group appointed Jon Tweed – former Sales Director at Hodge for Intermediaries and Head of Intermediary Sales at OneFamily – as a consultant.  Jon will be tasked with looking at ways to support member firms to grow their existing business volumes and increase revenue.  As part of this, he will also look to identify barriers which are stopping intermediaries from engaging more fully with the later life lending market and help Air Group determine how it can better serve this demographic.

Key (Including The Equity Release Experts)

Having produced the Key Market Monitor since 2005, Key revamped its flagship research report to highlight the variance in the number of customers spending the money they release to meet different requirements vs. the amount that is actually allocated to meet each of these needs or wants.  This change in reporting approach highlighted that discretionary spending is generally not the driving force behind equity release transactions with instead pressing financial needs such as debt repayment or boosting income in retirement being the reason that people look to access their housing wealth. For example, the HY 2020 Market Monitor highlighted that while 27% do treat themselves to a holiday with some of the money released, only 6% of the amount released is actually used to cover this cost.

Key is also delighted to received recognition in various industry awards including being shortlisted at The Personal Finance Awards (Best Equity Release Broker and Best Equity Release Broker Customer Service).

Key Partnerships

With growing interest in referral opportunities, Key Group’s referral arm – Key Partnerships – announced a referral partnership with Tenet and launched their new funding tool.  This interactive funding tool is designed to help intermediaries tackle difficult conversations around retirement income by taking into account all a potential clients assets.  Key Partnerships also unveiled their regular analysis of the products on the market which found that – even with the pandemic – there had been a new equity release product launched every 28 hours so far in 2020.

Key Group

Following a successful pilot, Key Group was delighted to announce a strategic alliance with Mortgage Advice Bureau which saw the launch of Mortgage Advice Bureau Later Life (MAB Later Life).  In a first for the market, a group of existing specialist MAB advisers – working under the MAB Later Life banner – became appointed representatives of Key Group and gained access to a range of products from a panel of four market leading lenders.

The views and opinions of contributors are not necessarily those of the Council.

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