Equity release lifetime mortgages are a way to release equity from your home by remortgaging with a lifetime mortgage. This enables you to release a cash lump sum from the equity in your property. Many people in retirement choose to do this for many reasons, the main is to help maintain a certain standard of living during your retirement or to fund holidays, cash for family relatives, or help with mortgage deposits for the next generation! Whatever your reason, equity release schemes vary great and here we talk about the most popular – lifetime mortgages.

There are a number of equity release advisers which offer free equity release advice, one of the favorites are Ascot Equity Release and their equity release lifetime mortgage advice.

Equity release advisers need to find out what the customer wants the money for and the amount they require. If the money is for several different things, you should establish the amount needed for each separate purpose and record this. Take the fees and charges into account and check that the amount required is realistic, not excessive or less than the minimum required.

Equity release advisers should also ensure that you understand what action the customer is prepared to take to release the money. For example, are they willing to sell a share in their house in order to achieve their goals? One reason for finding out what the money is for is to ensure that you take into account suitable alternatives to equity release, such as a grant for repair work, or whether you need to consider debt consolidation. As part of this process you will need to establish when the money is needed as this will affect the type of product you recommend. For example, either a lump sum or a product with a draw down facility to reduce the interest payments on a roll-up mortgage.

To assist with gathering appropriate information, some firms use a fact-find tailored to equity release. This allows them to capture specific information relating to relevant areas, such as the customer’s needs and preferences, benefit/tax position, preferences for their estate, health and life expectancy and future plans.

You should avoid placing too much reliance on checklists, as these are not enough to show that you have discussed the important areas during the advice process. If a customer’s circumstances change before they receive an offer, you should check the recommendation you made to make sure it is still suitable. For example, if the property is downvalued you should make sure the proposed transaction still releases sufficient funds to meet the customer’s requirements.