Later-Life Lending Advice Standards Rising in 2026: What Consumers Should Now Expect

The Air and Simplybiz partnership: what it involves

Air's new programme for Simplybiz-network advisers provides 24 hours of structured continuing professional development (CPD), leading to the LIBF-accredited "Adviser Accreditation for Later Life Lending." The programme includes three components: qualification support for advisers working towards the specialist later-life lending qualifications; the Air Academy One Day Accelerator, a concentrated training session on later-life product and advice process; and a lead generation workshop to help advisers build their later-life lending client base.

The LIBF accreditation is significant. The London Institute of Banking and Finance is a respected professional body, and an accredited qualification provides independent assurance of competence — not just internal training. For consumers, an adviser with LIBF accreditation has demonstrated a structured, examined understanding of later-life lending, not merely attended a product presentation.

This is the kind of training that specialist later-life advisers — including Verity Home's team — have pursued for years. The fact that it is now being delivered at scale to general financial advisers reflects the growing mainstream recognition of later-life lending as a distinct and specialist discipline.

Why the FCA is paying attention

The FCA has been examining whether consumers aged 55 and over are receiving genuinely suitable advice when they consult a financial adviser about retirement income and housing equity. The concern is specific: that some generalist advisers default to familiar solutions — standard residential mortgages, downsizing recommendations, simple pension drawdown — without properly considering whether a lifetime mortgage, retirement interest-only mortgage, or other later-life lending product would better serve the client.

This is not a hypothetical risk. Lifetime mortgages and RIO mortgages require specific qualifications and product knowledge. An adviser who is not regularly working in this space — and who does not hold the relevant qualifications — may not be well placed to recommend them, even if they are technically authorised to do so. The result can be advice that is compliant in process but that misses the best available option for the client.

The FCA's Consumer Duty, which came into force in 2023 and continues to be actively enforced, requires firms to demonstrate good outcomes for consumers. In the later-life lending context, that means showing that the full range of options was considered — not just the options the adviser happened to be most familiar with.

The four main later-life lending product categories

A well-trained later-life adviser should be able to advise across all four main product categories and explain why one may be more suitable than another for your specific circumstances:

• Lifetime mortgages: Borrow against your property; interest rolls up; no monthly repayments required; repaid on sale. The most commonly used equity release product. Equity Release Council membership provides the no-negative-equity guarantee and right-to-remain protections.
• Retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgages: Pay monthly interest; loan balance stays flat; capital repaid on sale or death. Regulated as a standard mortgage, not equity release. Requires evidence of sufficient income to service interest payments.
• Later-life standard mortgages: Conventional repayment or interest-only mortgages for borrowers in their 60s and 70s, where lenders accept pension income as the basis for affordability. Some lenders are increasingly flexible about maximum age at end of term.
• Downsizing and right-sizing: Not a lending product, but a legitimate strategy that should always be considered alongside lending options. Moving to a smaller or less expensive property releases capital without borrowing. It has its own costs and emotional implications, but it is part of the full picture.

Questions to ask any later-life adviser

If you are considering equity release or a later-life mortgage, these questions will help you assess whether your adviser has the depth of knowledge the situation requires:

• Do you hold the CII CF8 (equity release) qualification or equivalent, and are you accredited through Air or a similar specialist body?
• Do you advise on the full range of later-life lending products — including RIO mortgages and later-life standard mortgages — or only equity release?
• Have you considered downsizing as an alternative, and can you explain why the recommended product is more suitable?
• Have you reviewed the implications for any means-tested benefits I currently receive or might receive in future?
• Will you model the impact on my estate under different property price and loan term scenarios?
• Are you advising on a whole-of-market basis, or from a restricted panel?

These are not unreasonable questions. A qualified, specialist adviser will welcome them. An adviser who is uncertain or evasive in response is a signal to seek a second opinion.

The shift from "equity release" to "later-life lending"

The Air and Simplybiz partnership is part of a broader industry shift: away from the narrow framing of "equity release" towards the wider concept of "later-life lending." This matters because it changes the starting point of the advice conversation. Instead of beginning with "do you want equity release?", a well-trained adviser begins with "what are your financial objectives in later life, and what is the best way to meet them?"

That reframing is good for consumers. It means the full range of options is considered from the outset — lending, non-lending, and the interactions between them. It means the adviser is looking at your pension, your savings, your property, your benefits position, and your estate goals as a whole, rather than treating your property equity as an isolated question.

Verity Home has always operated this way. Our advisers hold the relevant qualifications, are accredited through Air's Later Life Academy, and advise across the full later-life lending spectrum on a whole-of-market, FCA-regulated basis.