The Equity Release Council and Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) will bring advisers from across the mortgage market together at Later Life Lending Summit North in Leeds on 17 November, with a programme focused on “The Changing Customer. The Changing Market. The Adviser of Tomorrow.”
Built around competence, care and confidence, the Summit will explore how advice needs to evolve as customers live longer, borrow later and face increasingly complex financial, housing and family circumstances.
The programme will look beyond individual products to consider the knowledge, skills and understanding advisers increasingly need as mainstream mortgages, later life lending and wider retirement planning become more closely connected.
Sessions will explore the FCA’s description of property wealth as a potential “fourth pillar” of retirement, when property should enter the retirement conversation and how advisers can recognise when a customer’s needs extend beyond their own proposition.
An interactive ‘Advise, Explore or Refer?’ session will use real customer scenarios to explore the wider later life lending toolkit and effective referral, while findings from the Council’s work reviewing customer journeys and advice standards will highlight what good advice looks like in practice.
The care programme will cover cognitive change and dementia, scams, coercion and undue influence. The Council will also launch its new Safe Steps for Care Conversations framework, providing practical guidance to help advisers introduce future care naturally as part of wider later life conversations.
The programme will also look at the Adviser of Tomorrow, exploring the skills and qualifications that are needed for a changing market, the role of AI in supporting advisers, and how to help customers whose housing needs change later in life.
Jim Boyd, Chief Executive of the Equity Release Council, said: “The later life lending market is changing, but more importantly, so is the customer. People are living longer, borrowing later and making decisions about their mortgage, property, retirement and family that do not always fit neatly within traditional product boundaries.
“This is not about expecting every adviser to become an expert in everything. It is about ensuring advisers have the knowledge and confidence to recognise when a customer may need something different and know where to turn next.
“The Later Life Lending Summit North is designed around those real customer conversations, bringing together advisers from across the mortgage market to build competence, confidence and ultimately deliver better outcomes.”
Stephanie Charman, Chief Executive of AMI, said: “Later life lending can no longer be viewed as a specialist corner of the mortgage market. Longer mortgage terms, later retirement and changing patterns of home ownership mean advisers across the market will increasingly encounter customers whose borrowing needs extend into later life.
“That does not mean every adviser needs to offer every solution. But they do need to understand the wider landscape, recognise when a customer’s circumstances require a different approach and have the confidence to explore the options or refer to someone who can help.
“As our customers change, the advice profession has to evolve with them. The Later Life Lending Summit North gives advisers the opportunity to build the knowledge, connections and confidence they will need to support customers throughout a much longer and increasingly complex borrowing journey.”
The Later Life Lending Summit North takes place at Headingley Stadium, Leeds, on 17 November and is open to advisers from across the mortgage market.
