Speaking at the Retirement Plus roundtable on the future of the equity release market, Andrea M Rozario, an equity release specialist at, Rozario Harris & Co, commented: “Equity release is a fast-moving sector of the market and it can take some time to source the best deal for each client. In addition, it is fundamental an adviser knows about state benefits. It can be a bit of a ‘Catch 22’ situation, whereby you need to do enough cases to understand the complexities of equity release yet at the same time you do not want to cut off other income streams.”
Marion Hatfield, consultant at Atos Consulting, explained that in order to sell equity release adequately it was essential that advisers had a broad knowledge of state benefits available to retired people.
She argued that, for retired people, equity release was a logical way of helping to pay bills and maintain a certain standard of living. However, she admitted it was important that brokers understood how benefits worked first as there might be benefits available to a customer that they had not claimed and would prevent them cashing in on their house.
Hatfield said: “It is important that advisers have looked at other options with their client, such as downsizing or seeking other benefits. Retired people need to know they are getting advice from people who understand the equity release market. At the moment there is no one place they can go to find out about independent advice.”
