Equity Release Club and Air Sourcing announce new relationship with Shawbrook Bank

10 April 2017

Equity Release Club, the distributor for equity release and later life advisers, and AIR Sourcing, the sourcing system for equity release and retirement lending products, has today (10th April 2017) announced a new relationship with Shawbrook Bank.

The Equity Release Club has been chosen as one of Shawbrook’s restricted panel distributors and Platinum member firms will, following attendance of a Masterclass session and having passed an online test, be able to advise on Shawbrook’s recently launched 55 Plus Interest-Only Mortgage.

Full product information on the 55 Plus Interest-Only Mortgage is now available on the AIR Sourcing portal. The product is suitable to those over-55s who are currently nearing the end of their existing interest-only mortgage and have a shortfall to pay. It comes with the following key criteria:

Borrowers must be aged between 55-75 years old.
Mortgages of between £25k and £1m (inclusive of fees) are available up to a LTV of 50%.
Currently five to 15-year variable rates are available from 5.25%; and three and five-year fixed rates from 5.5%.
The maximum age of the borrower at expiry of the loan is 85 years old.
The minimum income of the main earner is £16.5k; minimum property value £225k.
Overpayments are allowed at any time without charge; the loan can be paid in full at any time – the borrower need only pay the discharge fee of £120 in England and Wales, and £180 in Scotland.

This new product allows borrowers to stay in their own homes for up to an additional 15 years, plus it allows them to keep their savings rather than using them to pay off their existing shortfall. It also means borrowers can raise additional funds via the Shawbrook mortgage for a variety of purposes.

AIR Sourcing and the Equity Release Club, plus the Later Life Academy (LLA), are part of the Answers in Retirement Group - the Group of companies covering a range of retirement and later life services.

AIR Sourcing was launched in May 2016. Since its launch the system has grown to 1,600 registered users conducting over 2,300 sourcing sessions each month. The system covers at least four times as many product choices as other systems featuring all products from all retirement lending providers with users able to access its unique ‘Research Filters’ to show all product variations.

AIR Sourcing is available to registered advisers free of charge and offers products with enhanced terms for members of the Equity Release Club and Later Life Academy.

Stuart Wilson, Group Managing Director at Answers in Retirement Ltd, commented:

“We are very pleased to be announcing this new relationship with Shawbrook Bank and to be offering members of the Equity Release Club access to its new 55 Plus Interest-Only Mortgage. Over the past few years there has been increasing talk about the ‘interest-only timebomb’ and what borrowers with such products would do as they came to the end of their terms if they still had capital shortfalls to pay off. It is innovative and forward-thinking lenders like Shawbrook that are developing the product solutions for these borrowers, and I’m sure advisers in the later life space will be keen to explore this offering in order to help such clients. All product details are available on our AIR Sourcing portal and we are looking forward to engaging with Platinum Club members to help them begin advising and recommending on this product.”

Maeve Ward, Managing Director, Residential Mortgages at Shawbrook Bank, said:

“I am delighted that the Equity Release Club has agreed to partner with Shawbrook Bank as one of our preferred partners on our new 55 Plus Interest-Only Mortgage product. Having been kindly invited to their Later Life Academy lending events I have been so impressed with the quality of the advisers and their appetite to explore new opportunities to assist with alternative customer outcomes.”

For further information on the Equity Release Club, please visit: www.equityreleaseclub.com

For further information on AIR Sourcing, please visit: www.airsourcing.co.uk

For further information on the Later Life Academy, please visit: www.laterlifeacademy.co.uk

For further information on Shawbrook Bank, please visit: www.shawbrook.co.uk