Now we have a government, it’s time to contact your clients, argues Peter Welch, head of sales and distribution at Bridgewater Equity Release

Well the election has been and gone, the horse trading is over and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are attempting to show that a new coalition government will work and that can forge a new direction both economically and politically. While we spent the five days after the election in a state of uncertainty about who would actually form a government, we now find ourselves in a similar situation regarding how this partnership will actually work in practice and what this means for all concerned.

In markets such as equity release the ‘not knowing’ on how things will pan out is likely to continue for some time to come. Given the major agenda item to be tackled by this government will be the massive deficit, possibly followed by constitutional reform, it is quite apparent that social care, its funding, retirement provision and equity release is even further down the ‘to do’ list than it was prior to the election battle. Let us also not forget that there are no guarantees that this coalition will work and who is to say that we won’t be talking about another election before the end of this year?

While the Prime Minister and his deputy may be optimistic about the work that can be achieved and the stability they are providing, we are still in a ‘wait and see’ period, which can mean different things to different people. Experience tells us that in such periods consumer sentiment is such that many major purchasing decisions are put on hold. Those of us who are aware of the equity release target market will know that this behaviour is even more acute the older the customer is.

Many advisers we talk to are often concerned about lead generation and developing their equity release client base, and this talk of uncertainty and its impact may make the heart have a few palpitations however it is important to be positive. In this sense I’m reminded of the Winston Churchill quotation: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.””