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Retirement Plus offers the Impaired Life option – this is available to homeowners aged 65 and over, suffering from any of the following conditions:

  • Heart disease (excluding raised blood pressure)
  • Diabetes that requires insulin treatment
  • Stroke or paralysis
  • Longstanding breathing problems (excluding asthma)
  • Circulatory disease
  • Liver disease that requires long-term treatment
  • Hepatitis C or HIV infection

The Open Options Impaired Life Property Plan is based on our Open Options Property Plan but with three key differences.

So what’s different about the Impaired Life option?

  • As life expectancy is reduced, we may be able to offer significantly more cash, even with our protected share option – and it’s all tax-free
  • Release large amounts of cash in exchange for an 0.05% loading per month over our standard equity transfer rate – this means our share increases faster
  • A Medical Underwriting Fee of £200 is payable to cover the costs of medical underwriting – there is no cost to obtain a quote. If there are two applicants who require medical reports – each applicant is required to pay the £200 fee

So how much is available?

Harry
Harry is 71 and owns a property worth £200,000. Harry had a stroke two years ago. He has diabetes treated with insulin and a significant heart disease. He wants to raise the maximum amount available.

Property Plan

Monthly Equity Transfer Rate

Amount
Available

Maximum Level of Retirement Plus Share (99.9%) reached after:

Open Options Plan
in good health

0.64%

£81,200

11 years and 10 months

Open Options
Impaired Life
Property Plan

0.69%

£106,599

7 years and 8 month


Jenny and John
Jenny aged 71 and John aged 73 own a property worth £300,000. John is healthy but Jenny has diabetes, raised blood pressure and is overweight. She also has a history of angina. They want to retain 50% of their property as a protected share.

Property Plan

Monthly Equity Transfer Rate

Amount
Available

Maximum Level of Retirement Plus Share (99.9%) reached after:

Open Options Property Plan
in good health

0.64%

£58,600

12 years and 4 months

Open Options
Impaired Life
Property Plan

0.69%

£65,325

10 years and 1 month

Retirement Plus offers you choice

The Open Options Property Plan is also available, so it is worth obtaining a quote on both products to decide which is most suitable, based on specific circumstances and needs.

  • Under the Impaired Life option the Retirement Plus share increases at a faster rate, but more cash is available at the outset
  • Under the Open Options Property Plan less cash is available at the outset, but the Retirement Plus share increases at a lower rate

Ask for an illustration

Financial Advisers should complete the Quotation Request opposite and fax or email this to our Broker Contact Centre – you don’t need to obtain your client’s signature and there’s no charge. Alternatively, call us and we will take the information over the telephone.

What happens next?

  • We will send your quotation request to our medical underwriters for an initial assessment – they have a service standard turn around of 24 hours
  • We will e-mail you KFIs for all products, so that you can make a recommendation to your client
  • If your client decides to proceed with an Impaired Life option, you need to obtain a £200 Medical Underwriting Fee in addition to our normal valuation fee
  • We will obtain full medical underwriting including a written report from your client’s doctor
  • An offer will be issued in the normal manner – if there are any changes to the amount we can offer we will contact you first

Access to Medical Reports

If your client decides to proceed and complete the Impaired Life Application Form, Retirement Plus will, via its agent, wish to approach their doctor for a medical report concerning their health.

Before this is done they will be notified so that they can, if they wish, exercise their rights under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988.

Your Client’s Rights

Their rights are summarised below:

  • They may arrange to see the report before it is sent to our agent or during the 6 months after that;
  • They may withhold their consent to their doctor sending the report to our agent;
  • They have the right to ask their doctor to change parts of the report that they consider inaccurate or misleading. If their doctor is not in agreement with the changes they may add their own comments to the report.

They should be aware that their doctor is able to withhold the report (or part of it) from them if he believes they would be harmed by seeing it.

We may from time to time need to process personal data about your client which the Data Protection Act 1998 defines as sensitive, including this health information. By providing this data you signify your client’s consent to such data being processed by Retirement Plus and any subsequent owner of your client’s Property Plan.

Not for Public Distribution – Intermediary Use Only.

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