Perhaps. It is the role of a trusted and qualified later life mortgage advisor to get to know you, spending time to understand your plans and goals for later life.

We will be happy to take a look through the alternatives that you might have access to, providing the best solution that is appropriate for what your needs are in the long term. We actively encourage your family to stay included in your discussions with us, though that it entirely your choice.

Worry not, as if equity release is not the most suitable option for you, your later life mortgage mortgage advisor will be transparent and let you know, suggesting possible alternatives or referring you on to a professional who may be able to help you.

Thanks to our membership with the Equity Release Council, we are able to offer all of our customers something called the No Negative Equity Guarantee.

What this means, is that so long as the property is sold for a fair market value, if the amount that you owe from equity release is greater than the sale price, once estate agents and solicitors fees have been paid, neither yourself or your family will be liable to pay any additional anything further.

Regarding the amount of interest that you will pay, this amount will be mainly determined by the amount you are borrowing as a percentage of the value of your house and the age of the younger borrower, although there can be other factors can have an impact. Interest rates will typically be fixed for the life of the loan.

Repayments of just the interest or larger sums will usually be optional with most lifetime mortgages. This means that you are able to pay as much as you can afford, if you would like to, to reduce the amount of interest that adds onto your loan.

If you decide against making any repayments, the interest will add on to the loan and compound, which will mean that the amount of interest will be more each year, as you would be paying interest on the interest you have already gathered.

This will ultimately increase the debt against your home, which means there will be much less available for your beneficiaries after death or for you to use for later life costs, such as if you need to pay for care.

There are a lot of variables to consider with inheritance and equity release, depending entirely on what you are looking to achieve. Lifetime mortgages will incur some form of interest. What you choose to do with this interest could have an impact on your inheritance.

Some homeowners will make a point to pay back all of their interest, which will just leave the capital balance left to be paid back upon death or moving into long term care. Others will let the interest roll up, meaning there will be a much higher mortgage balance to be paid back upon the sale of the property.

The more equity that is taken out of your property, even if you manage to pay back all of the interest, the less that will be left overall for inheritance.

On the other hand, if you do choose to let the compound interest roll up, your inheritance will typically be reduced further. In some cases, there may be nothing left at all for inheritance, once the home is sold and the lifetime mortgage balance has been paid back.

We would always highly suggest having a conversation with a qualified later life mortgage advisor, to review the best ways to approach your available equity release options. If you would like a specific amount to be left at the end for inheritance, this should be something you talk about during your initial discussions with a later life mortgage advisor.

Lots of homeowners will take out a lifetime mortgage as a means of releasing equity, with a view to gift an early inheritance to a family member. This could be for a variety of reasons, such as for said family member to put down a deposit on their first home.

We would also suggest speaking with a qualified tax advisor to further understand inheritance taxation.

Aside from speaking to a qualified and professional later life mortgage advisor about whether equity release is right for you, it is worth thinking about any other arrangements that you can make to prepare for the future.

We would absolutely recommend talking to your family about equity release, as well as bringing your will up to date and arranging lasting powers of attorney.

These are all quite important steps, as often, it is your family as beneficiaries (after your death) or attorneys (if your mental capacity is impaired) who will have to sell the property in order to repay the balance of the lifetime mortgage.

As it tends to be for everything else in life, proper planning now makes for a much easier time (and a much cheaper one too) down the line.