Industry figures have called for closer links between mortgage advisers, wealth managers and later life lending specialists to improve client outcomes.

Speaking at a summit hosted by Air, senior figures from Nokkel, Legal & General, UK Finance and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries said the equity release market remained well short of its potential.

They said modern lifetime mortgages should be considered alongside refinancing options for existing mortgage borrowers, while property wealth should form a more central part of retirement planning conversations.

Air said the wider later life lending market, including mainstream purchase, remortgage and product transfer lending, is worth about £60 billion a year. Equity release accounts for £2.6 billion of that total.

Nick Birdseye, strategic partner development director at Legal & General, said: “Of that £60bn of lending, much of that will be written by advisers who don’t have lifetime mortgage permissions. We know that the majority of customers are offered mortgage advice and they’re offered advice across a quite a narrow spectrum of products, but of course once you get to 55, your available product landscape broadens significantly because all of the lifetime manufactured products come into play.

“However, I’m not sure how often they are being considered across the broader mortgage market.”

The Financial Conduct Authority has also identified later life lending as an area of focus. In the terms of reference for its Later Life Mortgage Market Study, launched in March, the regulator said specialist later life products such as lifetime mortgages and retirement interest-only loans “could play a greater role” in helping homeowners “achieve financial security and comfort in later life”.

The FCA is expected to publish findings from its initial exploratory work by the end of 2026.

Ronnell Reffell, acting principal mortgage policy at UK Finance, said: “People are buying later, they’re borrowing for longer and they’re also considering mortgage debt further into later life. This is articulated in our data, so in the last quarter of 2025, more than 40,000, new mortgages were taken by the over-55s – this demonstrates the opportunity.

“However, what we need to address is the challenge of breaking down adviser silos and ensuring that good customer outcomes and suitability remain front and centre as the market continues to grow.”

One barrier to wider adoption is that many advisers are not qualified or sufficiently familiar with equity release products.

Stephanie Charman, chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said advisers should refer clients to specialists where later life lending falls outside their permissions or expertise.

She added: “We need to look at the future of the later life sector — that’s not just lifetime mortgages; that is the broad later life sector. We need to break down the barriers.

“My personal view is you need to signpost: if it’s not within your wheelhouse of advice, you need to signpost and refer accordingly.”

Roland Whyte, chief executive of Nokkel, said property should become a core part of retirement planning.

He added: “Holistic wealth has to be the starting point for anybody planning for retirement. Given the scale of property wealth, the tax backdrop and a range of other factors, the home can no longer be overlooked in any decumulation strategy.

“There is still significant progress to be made on education and fully integrating property into the plan. Technology has a crucial role to play in helping integrate property into retirement planning and in connecting the wider ecosystem needed to support it.”

Will Hale, chief executive of Air, said there were signs that mainstream advisers and wealth managers were becoming more open to the sector.

He added: “Those of us operating in a lifetime mortgage market have been pushing this idea of holistic advice and the need for all advisers – whether it’s mortgage advisers, wealth managers or IFAs – to consider all the products available for a long time.

“I think we are starting to see some traction. A lot of the mainstream advisers or wealth managers I speak to clearly want to engage with the sector. That’s a real positive because too often the lifetime mortgage sector has been talking in a bit of an echo chamber.”