About Liz Barclay
A Radio and TV Broadcaster and Producer who also writes for national newspapers, magazines and websites and is the author of five business books. A Consumer champion. Liz chairs Citizens Advice Camden, the Money Advice Liaison Group and the Credit Union Foundation. She is also Deputy Chair of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and the Fundraising Regulator Standards Board, an adviser to the Customer Contact Association and an Ambassador for the Money Advice Trust.
What is your connection to the Equity Release industry?
I sit on the Equity Release Council Standards Board as an independent member. My role is (in brief) to keep saying ‘will the customer understand this?’; ‘will this be in the best interests of the customer?’; ‘If we change this standard will the customers still have the right level of protection?’; and ‘If this goes wrong what will you say to John Humphries on the Today programme?’.
What have been your areas of focus in your work to date?
Customers and the protection of the reputation of the industry as a whole: £3.6 Billion last year released from equity to be used for everything from age proofing homes to clearing debts and paying for holidays or university fees. As the sector gets bigger it is more likely that something will go wrong and hit the headlines. We’re still struggling to regain reputation following the scandals the 1990s and we can’t afford to do wrong by the customers.
What do you see are the challenges for the future of Equity Release looking ahead to the future?
Apart from striving to keep our good reputation, the role of Equity Release in the bigger picture of retirement income and the funding of long term care is important. We need a much wider discussion at the highest possible levels about how housing wealth can and should fit into the funding of retirement and social care.
How can firms best manage their reputation in the ER sector?
We know it takes many good deeds to built a good reputation and only one bad one to ruin it. History is littered with familiar examples such as BP, United Airlines, Gerald Ratner. Hold your hands up if you get things wrong, and explain what we’re doing to put things right and make sure it never happens again. Tell the truth. Consult your PR company first rather than the lawyers. Will Rogers the American actor, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator said: “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.“ That’s the best way to protect your reputation.
What does the Standards Board do to ensure the consumers’ best interests are the focus, while helping Council members?
They have people like me who care a lot more about the customers than they do about council members. I don’t mean that rudely but unless you have consumer advocates on boards and standards councils the voice of the consumer can get overlooked. You need people who shout out on their behalf while everyone else can make sure the members’ interests are on the agenda.
What “gets you out of bed” in the morning?!
My cats: try sleeping when cats are hungry. Once they’ve been fed my main purpose in life is meddling in people’s businesses in such a way that they never forget their customers. That should be why they get out of bed in the morning.
What one thing do people not know/realise/know enough about?
Given the chance I’d love people to know more about retirement. Most don’t know how small the state pension is, what their employer pays towards their work pension or where the money is invested, or how much they would need to build up in pensions and savings to fund a reasonable lifestyle in retirement. We could and do live a third of our lives after giving up work but most of us think very little about how we’re going to pay for the things we want to do during that time. And with language like Equity Release bandied about is it any wonder people switch off? Speak to people as you would to an intelligent 12 year old and they understand anything.
