Homeowner over 55? Why the right advice is so important

Knight Frank’s Later Life Advisers are on hand to help you make the right financial decisions.

As an older home owner you may well be thinking about releasing some of the wealth tied up in your home. You may need funds to redecorate, improve or update your home, or you might want to help your children and grandchildren with a financial gift.

Alternatively, you may have reached retirement and found yourself ‘asset rich, cash poor’ because your pension income is falling short of what you’d hoped, but you have wealth tied up in bricks and mortar that could really make a difference to your income.

Whatever the reason, borrowing or releasing money from your home is not as straight forward as it might seem, so it is essential you seek out and take the right advice.

At Knight Frank Finance we have recently launched a Later Life Finance service. Our Later Life advisers can help you with a range of products including Equity Release, Retirement Interest Only Mortgages, Short term finance and more traditional mortgage products that are tailored to older borrowers.

These products can be more complex to understand than normal mortgage borrowing as they are designed for the long term and will have additional features, benefits and risks to consider.

In addition, borrowing for what could be the rest of your life means you’ll need to think about what the future holds in a slightly different way. Careful, professional advice will help you protect and reassure the borrower.

At Knight Frank Finance our Later Life advisers will, of course, consider your immediate wants and needs, but they will also make sure you’ve considered a much broader picture. This means an adviser, before researching the market and making a recommendation to you, will have a conversation with you about:

1. The alternatives. Have you thought about whether there’s a different or better way of raising the money you need? At Knight Frank we have strong relationships with private banks, specialist lenders and the ‘niche’ finance providers, so we can look across all the alternatives with you to make sure you take out the right product.
2. The timing. Is now the right time to be borrowing? Or could you get by a little longer with your current resources? Borrowing money costs money, so we always take the time to understand your circumstances and, if you can meet your goals without borrowing, even if it’s only for a short time, we’ll advise you accordingly.
3. The impacts. Customers often don’t think about the impact raising money from their property can have. Our advisers will explore this with you, so you’re clear on the impact it might have both long and short term on your overall wealth, your family, your entitlement to benefits, your income and your tax position.
4. The future. Again customers don’t often think about what life might look like in the long term. For older home owners this might mean thinking about unpleasant or difficult situations such as a decline in health and the need for care, or the cost of a funeral. A Later Life adviser will sensitively consider these issues with you, even if it’s a little uncomfortable, so you’ve got a clear road map for the years to come.

If you would like to know more about Later Life Finance please contact us or visit our Borrowing Into Retirement information pages.