Later life industry leaders are urging advisers across mainstream mortgages and wealth management to break down advice silos for the benefit of consumers.
Speaking at a recent summit hosted by Air, figures from property wealth fintech Nokkel, Legal & General (L&G), and trade bodies UK Finance and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) said the equity release market was not operating at its full potential.
It was said that lifetime mortgages should be considered in all planning conversations.
The panel noted that the total later life lending market, including mainstream lending, remortgage and product transfer, was worth around £60bn each year, and equity release made up just £2.6bn of that total.
Nick Birdseye, strategic partner development director at L&G, said that of the £60bn, “much of that will be written by advisers who don’t have lifetime mortgage permissions”.
He added: “We know that the majority of customers are offered mortgage advice and they’re offered advice across a quite a narrow spectrum of products, but of course once you get to 55, your available product landscape broadens significantly because all of the lifetime manufactured products come into play. However, I’m not sure how often they are being considered across the broader mortgage market.”
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This comes as the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) Mortgage Rule Review and Later Life Mortgage Market Study highlighted the role of lifetime and retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgages in helping homeowners “achieve financial security and comfort in later life”.
The regulator is expected to publish its findings for its Later Life Mortgage Market Study by the end of this year.
Ronnell Reffell, acting principal mortgage policy at UK Finance, said: “People are buying later, they’re borrowing for longer and they’re also considering mortgage debt further into later life. This is articulated in our data, so in the last quarter of 2025, more than 40,000 new mortgages were taken by the over-55s – this demonstrates the opportunity.
“However, what we need to address is the challenge of breaking down adviser silos and ensuring that good customer outcomes and suitability remain front and centre as the market continues to grow.”
A knowledge gap
The panel said advisers did not speak to clients about equity release because they were either not suitably qualified or knowledgeable enough.
Stephanie Charman, CEO of the AMI, said that for these advisers, the solution could be referring to an expert.
She added: “We need to look at the future of the later life sector – that’s not just lifetime mortgages; that is the broad later life sector. We need to break down the barriers. My personal view is you need to signpost: if it’s not within your wheelhouse of advice, you need to signpost and refer accordingly.”
Roland Whyte, CEO of Nokkel, said property must become central to retirement planning conversations.
He added: “Holistic wealth has to be the starting point for anybody planning for retirement. Given the scale of property wealth, the tax backdrop and a range of other factors, the home can no longer be overlooked in any decumulation strategy. There is still significant progress to be made on education and fully integrating property into the plan. Technology has a crucial role to play in helping integrate property into retirement planning and in connecting the wider ecosystem needed to support it.”
Will Hale, CEO of Air, said that while there is plenty of work to do, he was seeing signs that some advisers were beginning to acknowledge the importance of holistic advice.
He added: “Those of us operating in a lifetime mortgage market have been pushing this idea of holistic advice and the need for all advisers – whether it’s mortgage advisers, wealth managers or IFAs – to consider all the products available for a long time.
“I think we are starting to see some traction. A lot of the mainstream advisers or wealth managers I speak to clearly want to engage with the sector. That’s a real positive, because too often, the lifetime mortgage sector has been talking in a bit of an echo chamber.”