In response to the news that Halifax has rejected some brokers from its panel (FA 10 March), I am in agreement with other correspondents on this.
We stopped actively advising on mortgages pre-retail distribution review when we focused on a core group of clients, most of whom have no need for a mortgage. Consequently, since then, we have invariably simply introduced to other local IFAs who like doing mortgages on the rare occasions when one is needed.
We have permissions for Lifetime Mortgages (my trainee and I) and I have the Long-Term Care Insurance too. I have not joined the Society of Later Life Advisers, though, and think it is more a decade since I last recommended an LTM. I mention them to most clients in their late 50s so they know about them when they do not need them, so I will not be surprised if I suggest them as a solution in 20 years’ time (or my trainee does as I might have retired in 20 years’ time, being 51).
Phil Castle
IFA
Financial Escape
Ramsgate
Kent
