Welcome to the spring newsletter 2021, I do hope it finds you safe and well.
I’d like to start this edition by announcing the date of the second Equity Release Summit, which is due to take place in the Church House Westminster conference centre, on Tuesday, October 12. Please save the date and register your interest, here.
Like most people, I am hopeful that the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Our first Summit was the last major industry event pre-lockdown and I hope to welcome you to one of the first, post-lockdown, in 2021! We all very much look forward to being able to meet in person. However, we take nothing for granted and we will of course be mindful of the official advice. You can also be assured that covid security and flexibility will be at the heart of the planning and you can expect to hear regular updates from us in the coming weeks and months.
We also hope to embark on a series of regional roadshows in November. As you will be aware, the Council has four new colleagues heading up membership and business development, public affairs and risk, policy and compliance – and they are keen to meet with as many members as possible, in person. We have recruited these highly experienced colleagues to provide more value and more services for our members. If any firms would like to host such a meeting, they should contact our business development and member relations manager via [email protected].
In February, before the budget, we published yet another major thought leadership report on the funding of adult social care, kindly sponsored by Pure Retirement and My Care Consultant. We look forward to announcing the publication of other significant reports in the next six weeks.
In addition, we held an excellent webinar based on our Pensions/Paradox revisited report, kindly sponsored by Key, looking at the impact of Covid on confidence among people approaching retirement and in particular on women, who not only have saved less for retirement but are also least likely to shop around for alternative sources of funding. You can read a report from the webinar, which featured influential Members of Parliament, here. We hope to repeat this with a care funding seminar.
Reports and events like this are essential to inform consumers and influential stakeholders about the benefits of modern equity release and the evidence shows we are to enjoying continued success. The Council featured in 355 mostly positive pieces of media coverage between January and April 2021, with coverage up 21% compared to this period last year. This makes this the busiest start to the year since 2018, which members can read about in the Council update.
However, the greatest advocates in our collective and ongoing campaign to ensure all older homeowners have confidence and knowledge to benefit from equity release is of course, our members. The adviser community is already aware of the power of consumer testimonials and more recently peer review websites and Paul Saroya of Viva Retirement Solutions shares his insights during his working week here.
Elsewhere in this edition you can gain insight into the work of underwriters in our regular feature sponsored by Pure Retirement. In addition, you can enjoy the usual round up of member news including a feature from OneFamily on staying in touch with customers.
Finally, let me end by encouraging members to keep in touch with us at the Council. There are many opportunities to engage outside of our regular newsletter and we are always exploring more. In fact, we are launching a focus group that will help inform and shape the future services we deliver. Find out about how to take part and read the findings from our latest member survey, here.
Kind regards,
Jim Boyd
Chief executive officer
Equity Release Council
