The Intermediary – February 2025 - Flipbook - Page 63
L AT E R L I F E L E N D I N G
Opinion
A year for growth in
later life lending
W
ith 2025
now well
underway,
and 2024
having been
a particularly
turbulent year, even with some
obvious events to take place, it’s hard
to envisage the next 12 months being
as volatile or as turbulent as the last.
Of course, such a statement might
well come back to bite me in 12
months’ time, but certainly within the
scope of the UK mortgage, property
and later life lending markets, I’m
finding it hard to see the ‘big ticket’
events which fundamentally altered
the advice space being anywhere near
what they were in 2024.
In that sense, the year begins with a
far greater degree of certainty than a
year ago, with what I think is a much
more calm environment to navigate,
while at the same time – certainly
within the later life lending space
– we must also recognise we have a
much more complex, changeable and
complicated market which, good news
alert, will require access to advice
more than ever before.
At the end of last year, Air hosted
an Academy Summit: Budget Special
event online, and we heard from a
wide variety of sources about the
growth potential for our sector, and
the growing needs of those either in,
or entering, later life. We also heard
about how this converges with a
greater product offering and therefore
a bigger advice requirement.
This should be music to the ears
of all advisers, but it’s also clear that
we currently have nowhere near
the sufficient number of advisers
active in the later life advice space to
meet demand.
According to the Equity Release
Council – and we must be aware
that not all later life advisers will be
members – there are currently around
1,800 registered individuals among
750 active firms.
Being ‘active’ isn’t necessarily
defined as those who are actively
writing business, either.
We have many advisers who can,
provide advice, recommendations and
place business with providers, but far
from all of them do.
Why might this be? Some say they
simply don’t see any demand, or don’t
see any relevant clients who might fit
the bill.
To which you might respond: do you
work with clients who are over 50?
Because it seems fairly obvious that
if you do, then you’re working with
clients whose circumstances right now
may or will be applicable to later life
lending solutions, or certainly will be
in the near future.
Time and expertise
The other pushback is oen around
experience, or knowledge, or both,
and we must accept our sector is fastmoving. In the past 12 to 18 months
there has, of course, been a lot of
product changes and shis, and these
do require effort and resource in order
to keep on top of.
Plus, time is precious for the vast
majority of advisers, and the question
is how best can they use it, and
can they find it to aend education
and support events – such as those
run by Air.
The answer might well lie in terms
of where the market has come from,
and where it is going. It seems highly
likely that advisers and firms will
continue to see more and more clients
for whom a tailored, later life lending
product option is going to be the most
appropriate solution; one that will
deliver them the best outcome.
And as we know, Consumer Duty is
all about the delivery of this.
We know older homeowners and
borrowers are currently siing upon
trillions of housing equity, we know
more and more people are taking
mortgage debt into later life, we know
more and more homeowners have
PAUL GLYNN
is CEO of Air
poor pension provision, we know
there are growing responsibilities,
wants and needs among older people,
including helping younger generations
onto the property ladder, and we know
we have an ageing population.
I could go on, but you get the point
that this equates to more older clients
needing mortgage advice well past any
‘traditional’ retirement age, and they
– I would suspect – will want to keep
on using the advisers that have served
them so well, for so long.
However, for some firms this is
going to necessitate a shi, a growing
knowledge of later life options, and a
commitment to delivering the best for
the client regardless of what product
areas they currently advise on.
We have an encouraging number in
terms of the 20,000-plus mainstream
mortgage advisers currently active
in the market, and we really need to
do much more to encourage them to
deliver holistic advice that spans all
sectors, particularly later life lending.
The good news for them is that
there is no shortage of institutions
and bodies there to help them make
a roaring success of increased client
demand and need.
What we do know is that if we
do have a calmer market in 2025,
then this might – and really should
– present the opportunity for all
advisers and firms to progress their
propositions into later life and beyond.
The clients are already there, the
need is already there, the products
and solutions are already there –
make sure you get all you need to
take advantage of this and make the
most of a huge opportunity in the
year ahead. ●
February 2025 | The Intermediary
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