Hodge Lifetime has been announced as the latest Product Ambassador of the Later Life Academy (LLA), the commercial and training organisation for later life advisers.
Each LLA Ambassador focuses on a specific sector within later life advice with Hodge Lifetime supporting and assisting members on lending into retirement and retirement mortgages.
Hodge Lifetime is one of the specialist providers offering retirement mortgages – a new type of interest-only lifetime mortgage filling the gap between residential mortgages and the existing roll-up equity release products.
The retirement mortgage is one way in which the traditional equity release sector is seeking to establish new, more flexible arrangements for those individuals who want, and have the ability, to pay the interest on their loans.
Hodge Lifetime will be working with the Academy and its members to grow their understanding of the options available to clients looking for loans in retirement and, in particular, the retirement mortgage itself. Hodge will be active in developing learning and training modules in this area and will work with members in order to help them develop their business volumes.
LLA was launched earlier this year and offers later life advisers across product areas such as equity release, long-term care, and annuities, with access to training and sales support. At the same time it is developing commercial opportunities for members through its relationships with Product Ambassadors such as Hodge Lifetime.
Stuart Wilson, managing partner of Equity Advice and Later Life Academy, said: “In a very short space of time we have already built a roster of Product Ambassadors who are absolutely committed to the Academy and ensuring we can help improve standards and professionalism across the later life advice space. To bring Hodge Lifetime on board with a specific focus on lending into retirement and retirement mortgages means we are able to cover off a significant and growing sector – one which advisers and their clients are increasingly interested in.
“Our recent launch events for members have shown the depth of demand for this proposition which focuses on both standards and delivering commercial advantages. The Later Life Academy Ambassadors are at the heart of this process and we will be bringing them all together in the spring for a round-table event in London in order to shape our strategy and planning for the year ahead. This session will be chaired by an independent expert in the later life space who will be able to set out the path for the Academy and ensure we become a united voice for better standards of consumer delivery.”
Jon Tweed, sales director at Hodge Lifetime, added: “As the need for professional advice in retirement continues to grow we are delighted to be working with the Later Life Academy in the area of lending in retirement and in particular, the Retirement Mortgage, which gives advisers another option for customers looking to borrow past their retirement age and who wouldn’t have seen existing equity release products as a natural fit for their circumstances.”