Key takeaways from the Air National Later Life Adviser Conference

"Clearly, with equity release customers, although they are not all vulnerable due to their age, the risk of vulnerability can rise in line with it."

The conference saw a full day of CPD-qualifying training sessions which were led by high profile speakers and included discussions around vulnerability, navigating the customer journey and unveiled Air’s new brand and purpose.

Some of the highlights included:

Air’s new brand and purpose

At the conference Air announced its new approach, developed to build upon the existing strengths of its position to better support its members in the sector. Broadening the Air offering, the wider later life lending market will become a development opportunity for members who be offered additional support to embrace these wider consumer needs.

Going forward Air will focus on offering best-in-class digital sourcing tools, personal performance development services as well as incentives and rewards programs, designed to help unlock confidence and rewarding growth for professionals and businesses.

This evolution saw Air Group become Air which is supported by a range of service brands including Air Sourcing, Air Club, Air Ambassadors, Air Academy and Air Marketing. Further information will be unveiled about how these offerings are growing over the coming months, with an evolved Club proposition to follow the recent relaunch of the Air Academy.

Range of speakers

A highlight from the conference was Standard Life Home Finance’s Kay Westgarth discussing the firm’s ‘lightbulb moments’ research. The research, which had responses from more than 500 over 55s who considered taking out equity release, focused on what the main concerns customers have regarding these products; what advisers can do to mitigate against these concerns; and how to ensure a customer is still an advocate even if they find equity release isn’t right for them.

Some of the key concerns where around what inheritance customers could leave their families, not wanting to risk losing their homes, and the overall cost of equity release. Interestingly, the research also highlighted that women – who are a growing demographic in this market – approached equity release slightly differently to their male counterparts. Indeed, 17% of women (13% men) were worried that they would be judged by their financial adviser on the financial decisions they had made previously and 30% (24% men) had not spoken to a financial adviser so were unsure of what was involved.

This insight was well received by the audience and clearly highlighted the value that advisers are able to provide as part of the decision-making chain when they provide specialist support in a balanced, tailored and informative way.

The future of estate planning

Al Gardiner, CEO of Honey Group, discussed the need for estate planning in the later life lending space, what is happening in the market and the size of the opportunity for advisers engaging with clients on estate planning matters. The session gave Al the opportunity to highlight a pilot project Honey Group is running with Air in order to provide advisers with support around lasting power of attorney, wills, trusts and probate.

While later life planning is the last thing many consumers want to think about, ensuring that provisions are in place to protect customers’ wealth as well as choices is vital. Later life advisers are therefore in the perfect position to broach the subject with their clients and have those difficult discussions in order to provide a holistic service which allows them to control how their estate is handled.

Understanding vulnerability in the later life lending sector

With clients being highly likely to encounter some of the greatest challenges and changes in their lifestyle between the ages of 55 and 85, this creates a very unique set of circumstances for advisers to navigate. As a result, Tim Farmer, Clinical Director and Co-Founder of Comentis, discussed the various drivers of vulnerability as identified by the FCA and reviewed how they change with age and the impact they have on this specific cohort of customers.

Clearly, with equity release customers, although they are not all vulnerable due to their age, the risk of vulnerability can rise in line with it. As a result, later life lending advisers must have strategies and systems in place to identify vulnerability and manage it effectively throughout the advice process.

Tim provided some tips for advisers on how they can spot the specific vulnerabilities. One such piece of advice was for advisers to develop a system in which they can manage and track client vulnerability while also developing their soft skills to identify vulnerability in the initial stages of a relationship, meaning advisers can protect themselves and their clients.

The event was closed out with a keynote speech from Major Tim Peake, European Space Agency astronaut and former International Space Station crew member, discussing the secrets, science and the everyday wonders of how and why man continues to venture into space.