Aviva Financial Advice (AFA) has added equity release and Inheritance Tax Planning (IHT) to the range of solutions that it can offer advice on.

This comes in addition to investment advice which was added earlier this year, and is another step towards the objective of providing a ‘whole of wealth’ advice proposition.

Equity release-qualified Aviva financial advisers will now join the referral model which Aviva currently operates for its direct sales, where members currently receive advice queries made directly to Aviva. Going forward, direct enquiries for new business and additional borrowing will be split equally between the providers on the panel. Equity release business received through Aviva’s network of whole of market partners will remain unchanged.

In addition, AFA advisers will now start providing IHT advice.

Mary Harper, managing director of Aviva Financial Advice, said: “We are really pleased to be able to offer advice on Equity Release and IHT, as these solutions represent an important part of retirement planning. Including the whole of customers’ wealth in discussions about their retirement income gives much more of a complete picture. It’s part of our longer term aim to offer advice on different products, and more blended solutions, according to which lifestage they are currently at, whilst maintaining a specialism for the at- and post-retirement milestone. This is where AFA’s expertise lies and where the biggest advice gap persists.

“Equity release can potentially provide a solution for a range of customer needs, whether this is to fund a one-off project or large purchase such as buying a car, providing help to younger members of the family in getting on the housing ladder or helping with costs of education, or simply providing additional income for someone’s own day-to-day expenses. More recently, increasingly flexible terms and conditions have also made this an option when considering tax efficiency so it is an important option to consider when discussing the retirement income landscape.”

Stuart Robinson, managing director of Aviva Equity Release, added: “As equity release products evolve, we have seen a definite shift away from this being regarded as a niche product, to being a central building block for customers planning their retirement income strategy. We are delighted to have AFA on board, along with our two existing referral partners, as well as our whole of market intermediary business. The referral model will work in exactly the same way as it does now, with enquiries split equally between our partners, and no up-front fees.

“The equity release market is proving very resilient, with sales in Q2 returning to the levels we saw pre-pandemic. In the long-term, we expect that these levels will persist, particularly with confidence in the property market being high, and higher house prices making more equity available and therefore opening up another potential retirement income source for customers to consider.”