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Lender says...

Equity Release Club has launched an online training website.

The website will allow advisers to study material specific to equity release at their own pace with online testing and instant results, correct explanations given when questions are answered incorrectly.

Continuous professional development logs and certificates are available to add to advisers' training and competence files or can be stored online.

Stuart Wilson, managing partner of Equity Release Club, said: "Quality of advice is linked to quality of learning so, at ERC, we wanted to bring a simple but effective online facility for advisers at a value for money cost.

"We have worked extremely closely with Wizard Learning to come up with a package that provides a full variety of high quality interactive training opportunities.

"It offers a full range of training for advisers looking to further develop their skills in the equity release sector through to those that know little about the market but want to embark on looking to advise in the sector."

We say...

Plus points... Training to bring advisers up to scratch is imperative. This website will help advisers understand the equity release market and show them how to enter it with all the necessary skills and training.

Could do better... Equity release advice training is already available, for example Hodge Equity Release has been running training days and seminiars to help advisers, and some people might prefer face-to-face learning rather than an online experience.

Adviser says...

Ian Howarth, consultant of Liverpool-based intermediary Parker Kelly Financial Services, said: "As an idea it is probably not bad at all. I am finding at the minute that equity release is bucking the trend set by a lot of other markets.

"The FSA classes equity release as high risk so people really have to do there homework on it. This is going to help them to do that, give them a background and also help them tap into a new market, which a lot of advisers probably are not into already.

"This area is going to go from strength to strength, so anything that is going to help advisers get into the market and get the right qualifications can only be a good thing."

Rating: 3/5 stars