Legal & General Home Finance is set to diversify beyond offering lifetime mortgages this year, according to managing director Steve Ellis.
The L&G arm has only handled lifetime mortgages since the firm entered the market by buying Newlife Home Finance in 2015.
Ellis says: “This year we will be broadening out into products that are non-traditional lifetime mortgages. I’d be really disappointed if we were still just doing lifetime mortgages at the end of the year.”
Speaking to Money Marketing sister title Mortgage Strategy about the future of L&G Home Finance, Ellis adds that the firm is also investigating if lifetime mortgage customers should be re-visited to give advice.
Ellis says the length of equity release deals means customers’ circumstances can change after advice is given at the beginning of a product’s lifetime.
He says: “We want to make the product part of the mainstream conversation. We can’t just do one discussion and never speak to them again.”
He adds that L&G Home Finance is also doing product work to innovate around the issue of customer longevity.
The firm also recently widened its property refurbishment lifetime mortgage after a pilot.
The product is secured on the customer’s home and funds repairs and refurbishment to bring properties up to Government guidelines on quality homes.
The extended pilot will cover London, Bristol, Oxford and the Black Country. If successful L&G will expand the product to cover the whole of the UK.
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