British financial services company Legal & General has secured approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to launch an advice business for Legal & General Home Finance’s range of lifetime mortgages.
The new business, Legal & General Financial Advice Limited, will be part of Legal & General’s Retail Retirement division. Sara McLeish has been appointed CEO, supported by Grant Hughes as managing director.
McLeish previously held the position of Strategy and Commercial Director at Legal & General Retail Retirement.
Legal & General Home Finance offers advice on equity products through Key
Legal & General Home Finance has been offering advice to customers on equity release products through Key, under the brand name ‘The Retirement Lending Advisers’ (TRLA).
The relationship will continue through any transition arrangements after the launch of the new advice business and Key will remain a strategic partner for the lifetime mortgage lender.
It will also continue to work with its other intermediary partners in the lifetime mortgage market to improve access to and raise awareness around later life lending, Legal & General said.
In March this year, Legal & General Home Finance announced an update to its lifetime mortgage offering that has two products with new loan-to-value (LTV) bands and a fresh way of identifying LTV levels with colours that indicate how no two retirements are the same.
The changes have been made in response to the feedback from advisers and provide them with more options to offer a tailored solution for their clients’ retirement plans.
The two new lifetime mortgages with the new LTV bands include a Flexible drawdown option and an addition to the retirement lender’s Optional Payment Lifetime Mortgage (OPLM) range.
The company launched OPLM last year, offering customers the opportunity to unlock housing equity but continue to make monthly interest repayments during retirement.
Taking feedback from its brokers, the company claims to have ended the pilot, which offered reduced interest rates to customers outside of London and the South East.
In place of the pilot, the company reduced rates across its range of lifetime mortgages for all new customers by up to 0.21%.
