Legal & General Home Finance has launched a new later life mortgages portal following adviser feedback.
It is designed to save time on administration and offers new product features, including access to both fixed and variable Early Repayment Charges (ERCs) on LGHF’s Flexible Lifetime Mortgages (FLTM) and Optional Payment Lifetime Mortgages (OPLM).
The provider states that additional features include greater automation and improved product functionality, to help advisers take advantage of later life lending opportunities. The portal will allow advisers to produce key fact illustrations, as well as track each stage of the lifetime mortgage application online.
Advisers will also have access to Legal & General’s Retirement Interest Only Mortgage (RIO), a residential mortgage designed for those aged 55 and over, used to replace an existing interest-only mortgage or as a new interest-only mortgage.
Legal & General has established a phased roll-out and will be inviting advisers to sign up and gain access to these new features over the coming weeks.
Claire Singleton, CEO Legal & General Home Finance, said: “As the lifetime mortgage market continues its lockdown recovery, operational efficiencies created by technology will play an increasingly important role in helping advisers achieve the best outcome for customers.
“To help advisers fully take advantage of opportunities in this market, we have created a portal that will make a real difference to the advice process, not only saving advisers time but offering more choice and greater flexibility, so they can better support customers.
“We have also listened to advisers and introduced fixed ERCs to provide customers with greater choice but also the surety of how much they would pay in the unlikely event they need to repay the lifetime mortgage early.
“Our goal is to help advisers protect and support customers throughout their later years, and these enhancements provide another step forward in that journey.”
Jan Johnson, director of 55 Plus Equity Release, added: “This is a great example of a lender that has listened to broker feedback and responded with an easy-to-use portal, that makes things simple, and saves us time, while also making things speedier for our clients.
“We can now do everything in one place, from getting an illustration to submitting an application and tracking its progress, without having to call the lender. As an adviser, online portals are a fantastic innovation – they mean hanging on the phone is hopefully a thing of the past.”
