From niche to norm: growing your referral opportunities

 This session brings together practical, real-world perspectives on how later life lending advisers can build stronger referral pathways as the market moves further into mainstream advice. With expert insight from Paul Glynn (more2life), Ryan Mansell (Rhino Financial Solutions) and Sarah Ferrell (Ferrell Financial Ltd), the discussion explores how introducer relationships can be identified, established and grown in practice, offering valuable guidance on turning referral opportunities into a more structured and sustainable source of business growth. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Market Reality

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Good morning. I'm Will Hale, CEO of Air, and I'd like to welcome you all to today's Growth Summit. Thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your busy diaries. However, to kick off, I wanted to talk a little bit about the market environment we're currently facing. And undoubtedly, talking to a number of people today already, it's been a really challenging time for those of us specializing in the lifetime mortgage market. Higher rates and instability, both on the global stage, but also as of today, also probably on the domestic stage as well, have really impacted, I think, customer confidence and their uh preparedness to sort of proceed with what is a very big life-changing transaction in many circumstances. So, as per the equity release council stats that were produced last week, we have seen a market that has been declining. And at air, we're very conscious of the pressures that that will be putting upon our members and our ambassador partners. However, today is about looking beyond some of those short-term challenges. And actually, when we look at our market with a wider lens, we're facing into a really exciting opportunity. So some of the stats were covered on the slides that you just saw. But for me, there's a couple of things that really stand out. So I think it was last month Savals produced a report that highlighted that over 60s are responsible for over 3.8 trillion of housing wealth. Just reflect on that for a moment. 3.8 trillion of housing wealth. So what we're seeing in the lifetime mortgage market at the moment is only a fraction of that money being released. So we've still got a huge opportunity to help many more customers use that asset to make themselves a more comfortable and fulfilling later life. Also, if we look at the broader later life lending market incorporating traditional mortgages, we see a market that continues to grow, which is not surprising given the socio-demographic trends we see more broadly. So the later life lending market as a whole, last year, if you include product transfers, we estimate was worth about 60 billion. So again, reflect for a moment. So the opportunity is huge, both to increase that 60 billion of lending to older people, but also to make sure that lifetime mortgages are seen by more advisors and more customers as a viable alternative. And then framing all of that is what I would position as a much more favourable regulatory environment for all of us in this room. The regulator has overtly acknowledged the role that property wealth has to play in later life planning. And through its market study and the work it's doing on holistic advice, it's made a firm commitment to make sure that this market is set up for growth. And we've all got a huge role to play within that. Because never before has advice been more important in this space. And we'll hear a lot more about that today. So this session, the Growth Summit, is about just that. It's about growth. It's about helping you as advisors and firms set yourselves up to drive profitable growth from this market and in a sustainable way that is set up to deliver good outcomes for customers. And as air, we're committed to supporting you on that journey. We want to listen to what you as our members need from the technology and from the other support services that we offer. And we want to innovate alongside our lender partners and our conveyancing partners to make sure that we bring products and services to this market that are fit for the growth that we know is coming.

AIR Support And Right Route

SPEAKER_02 7:41

One thing I just wanted to point to, which is something that we've worked on hard in the last six months, is an evolution of our right route journey. So for those of you who aren't using Air to support fact find, sourcing, and suitability, I would recommend that you take another look at right route. We've invested in a new suitability report which is aligned to the principles of consumer duty and is there to help you enhance customer understanding. A lot of work has gone into that, and I'm really proud of the output that we're now able to achieve. Also, looking forward, in the second half of the year, we're going to be evolving our approach to our membership tiers. Moving away from approach which rewarded members just for the volume of business that they're writing to a more balanced view, which also recognises advisors who may be doing lower volume, but doing so with quality and with a commitment to building their expertise. We're able to also open up our academy services free of charge now to all members and also encourage more people to come into the market and benefit from those learning services. I'd say thank you to our ambassador partners for help for their support in making that possible. But I would ask all our members also to keep submitting business through Air Club because it's by doing so that you enable us to keep our services free of charge to you as our members to access.

Summit Format And Networking Focus

SPEAKER_02 9:12

So about today. So listening to the some of the feedback from previous events, we wanted to have a little bit of a change in our approach this time round. So today, expect to hear more from your peers. So more involvement from members within the panel sessions and and on the stage more generally. But also more time for networking and interaction. So through the day, we've got a number of breaks and lunch events where you'll have time to spend in the exhibition hall with our lenders, with our conveyancing partners, and also with your peers as well. Please take the opportunity to use those times to build your network and to share insight and ideas. So three pillars for today grow, evolve, and thrive. And on your tables, you'll see some packs which hopefully provide some resources which should give you a blueprint for driving profitable growth within your businesses. So with no further ado, I'm going to kick off with our first session of the day, which is a panel session bringing together four industry experts to talk about the current environment, both from a regulatory and a commercial opportunity perspective.

Market Trends And Growth Barriers

SPEAKER_02 10:37

So I'd like to welcome to the stage in no particular order Steph Charman, CEO of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, Ronaldo Rafael, Principal Mortgage Policy at UK Finance, Roland White, CEO of Knockle, and Nick Birdseye, strategic partner and development director for LNG. Good morning all. Welcome. So let's get straight into it. So Ronaldo I'm gonna kick off with you. So UK Finance publishes one of the flagship market reports on later life lending. How would you characterize the current market and what do you see as the barriers to future growth?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Thank you. Um so this is something that we're thinking about a lot. So um from our perspective, um the trends definitely show that later life lending, especially when you look at it from a broader sense, uh can no longer be considered niche. Our latest TIL report um shows that uh the market is changing. Now what's driving that change is that people are buying later, they're borrowing for longer, and they're also considering um mortgage debt further into later life. At the same time, what we're seeing is many consumers starting to consider their housing wealth um within their um broader retirement planning. Now um this is demonstrated in our data. So in the last quarter of 2025, um 40,000 um new mortgages were taken by the over 55s. So this demonstrates the opportunity. Um however, we we need to address the challenge of breaking the breaking down sort of advisor silos and um ensuring that good customer outcomes and suitability um remain front and centre as the market continues to grow.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Thanks, Ronaldo Nick. I'm just gonna come to you for an opinion on that as well, because you know, you've been operating in this market for well almost as long as me, I think. So you know, and and these conversations about barriers are something that we have regularly. You know, going back to some of the market stats and the very helpful report that UK finance produced 60 billion roughly of lending if you include product transfers to the over 55, but only 2.5 billion of later life lending. Why do you think the that that sort of disconnect still exists?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Um morning everybody. Uh I think there are there are a number of reasons, and difficult to throw a sort of hat over all of them at once, but I think some of the things are uh around structural um is issues. So uh of that 60 billion of lending that is done in the marketplace, uh a greater proportion of that will be done by uh advisors who don't have lifetime mortgage permissions. Um and uh it'll be interesting to see what washes out of the FCA market review later in the year um around that piece, because we, you know, we we know that um the majority of customers are offered mortgage advice and they're offered uh advice across a quite a narrow spectrum of of products. Uh, but of course, once you get to 55, your your uh available product landscape broadens significantly because all of the the the lifetime sort of manufactured uh products come into play. Um and I'm not sure how often they are being considered across the the broader uh mortgage markets. I think structurally uh that that's that's an issue. Um and that comes down to sort of qualification regulation. Uh, and then there's the attitude and mind stuff, uh, mindset stuff around it of you know, um, if I'm an advisor, whether I'm a mortgage advisor or an IFA wealth advisor, am I considering that whole um solution set as part of my financial planning sort of toolkit? And and I think the answer is broadly no, and we'll come on to to discuss some of the reasons for that.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

So, Steph, let let me come to you because I think building on that theme around sort of advice silos and why they may be a barrier to this market growing. So with the FCA market study underway and and alongside the work it's doing on holistic advice, in in your view, what what do you think holistic advice in this market could look like going forward?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Thanks for the easy question, Will. Um so I think there's a couple of pieces. So if we look at the market study first, um Amy have lobbied hard, and you know, I don't think we're the only ones who have pushed back actually that we talk about we need to look at a future of a later life sector. So that's not just lifetime, that is a broad later life sector. Um, and we need to not be siloed, we need to break down barriers. But actually, the market study, um the terms of reference that have come out for the market study at the moment only looks at lifetime and Rio. So actually it's siloed in its approach straight away, looking at particular products as opposed to actually, you know, what is a consumer need? So we've we've pushed back on that and you know, see where the FCA get to. I think this piece about holistic advice is also really important. If we asked every single one of you in this room what your view of holistic advice is, there will be some consensus, but there'll all be variations on. And I joke about if you ask 12 people about holistic advice, you have 13 answers. So it's what how broad do you want to go? Is it holistic advice based on a mortgage conversation? Is it is it do you then need to tap into wealth? Do you, etc., etc., etc. So I think it is one that we need to we need to consider. However, I think in the broad consensus, all it needs to be is what is your consumer need? So actually take away all the product, so take to your point, let's break away from product. Actually, what is your consumer need? And then from a practical perspective, do you need to advise on that? And there was a question mark on that. My personal view is no, but you do need to signpost. So where is your considerations? Where do you need to look at you know meeting those consumer needs? And then if it's not within your wheelhouse of advice, you need to signpost and refer accordingly. And I think that's where you know we're doing a huge amount of work is AIME as UK Finance, the trade bodies coming together to look at what does that, what does that look like as a blueprint?

Holistic Advice And Breaking Silos

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Thanks, Steph. I I think you know, for many years, sort of I I think those of us operating in a lifetime mortgage market have been sort of pushing this idea as a holistic advice and the need for all advisors, whether it's mortgage advisors or wealth managers' RFAs, to consider sort of all the products available. I and I think finally actually we're starting to get some traction. I mean, it was great this morning, sort of in the exhibition of all, to talk to a number of advisors who come in from the mainstream space or indeed from a wealth management background who are clearly here to engage with the market. And I think that's a real positive because too often I think you know the lifetime mortgage sector has been sort of talking in a bit of an echo chain. And I'd like to say a big thank you actually to you personally, but also um Ronaldo to UK Finance, I think for the leadership you're showing now in bringing um the later life market firmly into the mainstream. So lots of work to do, but we're finally making some progress, which which is fantastic news. And and just on that, no, Roland, come coming to you, because uh we've probably sort of concentrated mainly on the sort of mortgage spokes, but talk to me a little bit about how you see property wealth fitting into broader retirement planning and how should advisors thinking about the role of the home in terms of meeting customers' needs in in later life.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Morning, everybody. Um another easy question. Thanks, Will. Um So I guess you know the the perspective we we we take is that we all make the best decisions with with all the information in front of us. And if you if you extend that logic, that logic goes to I guess the the the topics that that we've just been talking about, which is holistic wealth has to be a starting point for anybody thinking about um planning for their retirement or or de decumulating in in in retirement. So I think that's just a long-winded way of saying that the property, given its scale and proportions, and particularly given given the the tax backdrop and the and the direction of travel, um, the the home cannot be ignored when you're thinking about a decumulation plan. And I think where where we're moving towards, or at least what we're starting to see, is that that um I mean certainly with the with the FCA backdrop and all the um helpful efforts that are that are moving towards holistic wealth being part of part of the plan is that property has to feature and be considered as part of part of decumulation. Um I guess you could you can think about decumulation as it should be a very simple, easy equation. It's what are your what are your holistic assets, what's your holistic wealth, what what do you need in retirement, and therefore what's left at the end for estate planning or if you want to gift through uh through through your retirement. And that sounds like a very simple statement to make that that it's a simple equation. In some cases it it might be slightly easier to to think about, in others maybe not quite so easy. And I think that's probably where you start to think about um where where there's a a consumer need to have that advice um at various different levels, and and then the question becomes well, how do you take that how do you take that advice and make sure that the advice that's being delivered is is factoring in all the ingredients um that that feature within holistic wealth and property being important as as part of that. So as I say, it's starting to happen, but I I think there's still a a way to go in terms of let's call it education and bringing that in into the plan, but you know, the the the direction of travel is certainly heading the right direction.

Property Wealth In Retirement Planning

SPEAKER_02 20:22

So I think conceptually, I think sort of most of us in this room would agree with that need to bring the home into the sort of the plan in terms of retirement planning, and and clearly the regulator is sort of talking around sort of that sort of language, but but Nick, maybe coming to you, what what what practically needs to happen in the market to make that a reality? I mean I mean again you know, my perception is that a lot of wealth managers, IFAs out there are simply not qualified to write mortgage business. So how do you move from that sort of philosophical change of thinking about the property being included to how that translates to transactions and the use of products such as lifetime mortgages within a plan? Is it referrals? Is that the answer?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I think it's what it's one of the answers. I think the the it starts with that uh the the theoretical acceptance of property as what as part of a basket of assets, um, and then it's mindset around is that I mean you know, I have a couple of provocations on this. One, property is great to live in, but it's really, really lazy equity. That equity doesn't do anything for the family, it grows in value, but no one's putting that money to work. Uh, and I don't think planners are thinking about how they how they, you know, if if if an IFA was looking at uh uh you know um investable assets under management and and they weren't growing hard enough, they put them to work. They they move that money around. No one's thinking that way about property value. And I think we need to provoke those those conversations, uh, but also providing the uh the sort of I suppose the um the the advice outlet. or the the product solution outlet is about actually building those professional connections, building those referral networks, making uh if you're if you're in this space, making yourself useful to somebody who's not in that space, but who has a, you know, who has a uh holding of assets. I also sort of characterize um practice value. You know, if you talk to an IFA and say what's your what's the practice, you know, your practice value, they would talk about assets under management. They're not talking about property wealth under management. None of, you know, an IFA can not be able to sort of sum up the the the property value that their hundred gold clients own and think about how they're putting that money to work on behalf of the client. So I think it's about um we've got we've got to get on our bikes and actually build those referral um networks, do the old school stuff which is network meetings, but also do the digital stuff as well. You know um you know the I see some people who are really good at digital marketing and building their networks and I see others who are who who are less active and funnily enough the people being really successful at the moment are the people who are building those really um high value referral networks.

Referrals, Mindset, And Advisor Networks

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Thanks Nick Steph coming coming back to the mortgage market specifically um so the work the regulator is doing I mean I think we can sometimes forget those of us immersed in this part of the sector it's not just limited to later life lending there are some broader themes there as well and um I suppose sort of from a from a Amy perspective one of the risks is around the regulator potentially pointing to a route to more execution only business. Can you share your views on that and and and sort of what do you think that does to the importance of advice and and and particularly the importance of advice in this sector where we're dealing with older potentially more vulnerable customers.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Thank you Will so yes um the mortgage rule review started about this sort of time last year and I remember it vividly because I didn't really enroll a few weeks so it was about it as a fire. And the one thing that they started there was and there was a number of pieces but actually the removal of the advice interaction trigger which is an enabler for more mainstream lenders to potentially step into execution only. And then if you then layer um and I talk about it is in a layering piece. So actually it's a layering of slightly changing consumer behaviour. Actually people want we all want to do everything on on our phones on a digital app, don't we? We want everything instantaneously you change that consumer behaviour then change AI and tech um coming in and then you then you take this removal of the advice trigger you potentially get to a world where actually you are disintermediating but also consumers are getting um not getting advice and I think that that does concern from an AME perspective that concerns us massively. I think there's a piece of I could I could sit here and preach to the converted here on the value of advice that also is also a significant there's a different angle to look at it what is the cost of not getting advice and I think that's the piece that we really want to focus on because digital is great but we're not buying toilet roll on Amazon here. We are buying you know people are taking mortgage debt and that is significant. Where is the identification of vulnerability? Where is it does a digital app give you reassurance, guidance, empathy? That's what you all do in this room. And it's really really important that we don't forget that and we make sure that consumers are really really aware of what they're losing if they go down a digital route. I think just picking up you know so there's certain cohorts of customers that we believe should never ever go down a digital route. One of those is later life but actually on the other flip end is also a first time buyer. First time buyers don't know what they don't know. So we perhaps we'll see these digital execution only journeys if we see them coming more to the fore in the refinance space. So actually sort of product transfer refinance space. But to the point with Ellie you'd you touched on it around first time buyers taking longer terms. So you know I think it was 68% of um first time buyers in 2024 I think it was the last set of data took products over 35 year term and then you did you know you tie up you know the average age of a first time buyer being 34 35 you're into into retirement and the FCA have got a concern around that. Well part of part of what I want to say is hang on a moment well if you remove advice at those key trigger points at those product maturities nobody is having a conversation with that customer about overpaying on their mortgage um reducing their terms they've had a promotion they've had pay rises so actually you know they could start to chip away at that mortgage debt but are they going to do that or are they going to allow you know if they're doing that on an app themselves or they're gonna allow lifestyle creep to come in and not overpay nobody's going to be that critical friend who challenges them. So I think actually the regulators are a little bit at odds with themselves. But I do think um there is opportunity I do think there are certain segments where customers just won't choose whether we see customer behaviour change in some segments they won't choose to go in alone and I do think we'll see more diversification and later life is without one of them. But there is massive opportunity in just engaging with your customers and making sure they know that the value of not speaking to you is higher than speaking to you.

Execution Only Risks And Vulnerability

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Ronaldo I might come to you for a for a sort of comment on that and look in fairness we've seen lots of members of UK finance be very supportive sort of vocally around the role of advice and intermediaries but but do you see particularly in this part of the market bigger responsibility than lenders to be signposting to customers the availability of other options and to show them the route to good quality advice to make sure they end up with the right outcome is that something lenders need to take more responsibility for okay so um as I said in instances where it's been um identified that customer needs have changed um lenders as well as advisors have the responsibility in ensuring that um where a broader conversation is required um the customer is signposted um to ensure that the all available options are are are open to them uh whether that be later life lending wealth wealth um or financial planning or other types of specialist advice um it's important that customers um are not caught in the silo yeah I I couldn't agree more I mean just to um while I've got the stage you know one of my hobby horses at the moment is again I think in the later life market we we've done a pretty good job actually post-2022 and 2023 evolving our advice processes so we're considering more options for customers but again you look at your own stats from UK finance and you see the number of customers who are still going through a product transfer process or a remortgage into another two year five year fix rate mortgage it feels to me like the rest of the market sort of needs to evolve to ensure consideration of more options and I and I go back to you that for me affordability doesn't mean suitability and that's why it's so important even if a customer qualifies under affordability for it for a standard mortgage that broader options are also considered and and Steph, you and I have had this conversation but trying to get rid of this lottery between the outcome that a customer receives being dependent on the type of advisor that they end up engaging with to start with I think if all of us can try and work out the mechanisms to ensure that's not the case we'll be in a better position.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

I I agree with and I do think it is around that consideration. So I think it's back to the point I made before around what are those product choices that are available and then guiding the customer through that. I do think we are seeing some progress though. So I think on both sides I think you know from from your perspective you look at sort of lifetime equity release advisors looking at a broader range and I do think we're starting to see that back the other way as well so mainstream advisors broadening their reach. I think there is a role for us to do around education to really make sure that people are fully understanding. So there's some legwork for us all to do fully understanding of all the options that could be available.

Tech Tools And Connected Advice

SPEAKER_02 30:02

And Roland maybe sort of coming to you for a final question before maybe I just open it up quickly to the floor but the um going back to that education maybe as a counter to the piece around sort of digital journey sort of what role do you think technology has got for engaging more customers in this space and actually empowering the advisors with better tools to make better decisions?

SPEAKER_04 30:26

That's a very very kind question to ask given given given where we where we sit um may maybe just before going straight straight to the answer on that um I just like to pick up on one of the points that that that Nick mentioned a little bit earlier which I think is an absolute fundamental one and that's that is you you've got to keep in mind the the the the backdrop here is most financial wealth advisors started life with looking almost exclusively at investments. They talk about AUA they don't include um property wealth as part of AUA but particularly given some of the recent recent changes I keep on coming back to decumulation taxation you know this this equation getting more complicated as as every day passes so the the the role of the financial advisor is very much evolving from you know let's get the best returns that that that we can generate off the back of your of your savings and investments to let's help you live your best life in in retirement. So that's that's a fundamental mind shift from from if you were to rewind you know 10 years 20 years ago so so this this theme of of of education um as as as deaf mentioned is is really really important and helping advisors I mean there were what 3000 plus financial advisors out there some in some in large firms where they are getting that education um you know there's a huge tail if you've ever looked at it on on the financial advice um spectrum so there are a very very large number of financial advisors who perhaps don't have that education don't have that support network and inherently I think that that is both the you know the problem to solve but equally the the the opportunity and that education isn't just about well this is this is what you can do with um you know with with property as a as as part of the decumulation equation it's also about you know they these are individuals spending time effort and you know the referral component is important let's be honest alongside um you know sort of a set of set of advice they can give around investments where there's a very simple equation around basis points on AUA I think actually that education extends to well this is how it makes business sense for you as well and I don't think we should be shy about that. So I so I guess from a your your actual question on technology um so I you know what what are the things that we can do to make a difference so one is holistic wealth um every my view is every single financial advisor um should start in any advice looking at someone's holistic wealth before advice is g is given um the the the second thing is education which we've we've we've talked about and I think the the third one is uh and maybe this is a this is a role for um you know for for the bodies for the regulator is around you know just disclosure actually help help the client understand am I getting investment advice or am I getting holistic wealth advice I think actually some clarity around that would make a big difference and then what what I think underpins all of that and you know part of the reason that that that we exist as a business is is to try and support facilitate all of that in terms of you know education where you can build in calculators and tools but also you know the infrastructure that connects a financial advisor to an equity release advisor and it's not just a simple referral but actually you create an ecosystem of information everybody should be sharing on the same information and making sure that the advice that's given is is consistent and in and and well informed thanks Roland guys say um it just uh falls upon me to say thank you very much again to all of you for taking the time out today to be on the panel and uh yeah you're free to free to leave the stage.