“The FSA has identified three areas where they still have serious concerns: 1) quality of advice 2) low volume firms “dabbling” in the market and 3) disclosure. Whilst acknowledging there is still much to do, we would point to a number of initiatives introduced by SHIP this year that are intended to address these very issues.

“Firstly, we have recently introduced the SHIP equity release checklist for use by advisers and potential clients.This aide memoire sets out, in Plain English, the key areas that an adviser should cover when selling equity release products to clients. These include the impact on benefits, consultation with families and options other than equity release such as downsizing. This checklist, which can be downloaded from the SHIP website at www.ship-ltd.org, is intended to help raise standards of advice by ensuring that the advisor covers all the appropriate areas when selling lifetime products.This will also form part of the disclosure process.

“In addition, we have recently announced that from August 2007, SHIP members will no longer accept business from advisors who do not hold an appropriate lifetime mortgages qualification. This is a radical move that has been widely welcomed within the industry and will put pressure on advisers to show their commitment to equity release. By insisting that advisers are qualified, we believe that we will stop “dabbling” in equity release and be left with only those who are serious about the market and their customers.

“We have greatly valued working with the FSA on making standards in the equity release industry better and will continue to liaise closely with all relevant bodies including intermediaries to ensure a robust and secure market for years to come.”