{"id":3410,"date":"2021-05-04T09:39:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T09:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsfin.co.uk\/news\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2021-05-04T09:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T09:39:22","slug":"unlocking-property-wealth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/unlocking-property-wealth-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking Property Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Plan for the worst, hope for the best<\/h3>\n<p>With the rapid changes that have swept the world over the last year resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, some people aged over 50 are facing a different retirement than they may have been expecting.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Some have less savings than they imagined, some have had to access their savings to supplement their income and some have retired earlier than they had planned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Financial affairs in order<\/strong><br \/>\nFor many, the 2020 experience was a taster of what retirement could be like \u2013 as well as providing a jarring reminder to people to put their financial affairs in order.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, not everyone has sufficient pension savings to fully recover from these events, which has led some people to look for alternative ways to fund their retirement. One of the options is using their property wealth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Home ownership among over-50s<\/strong><br \/>\nPeople in the UK pay off their mortgage at an average age of 54, according to recent research[1]. The average home value is in the region of \u00a3240,000. That\u2019s a significant amount of wealth to have tied up in property, particularly for those people who don\u2019t have enough cash to cover their everyday expenses.<\/p>\n<p>Downsizing is one option for accessing that wealth, but the research highlighted that more than half of over-50s say they love their home and couldn\u2019t imagine moving to another property.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Accessing the cash without moving out<\/strong><br \/>\nA second option to make use of property wealth \u2013 without the hassle of moving \u2013 is through equity release. Equity release can mean either a lifetime mortgage, where a loan is secured against the home and the homeowners are not required to make any repayments during their lifetime, or home reversion, where a portion of the home is sold but the homeowners retain the right to live in it.<\/p>\n<p>Equity release unlocks the value built up in your home as a tax-free lump sum. There\u2019s no need to move out and you\u2019ll still own your home. With equity release, you don\u2019t have to make monthly payments unless you choose to. It\u2019s usually repaid when the last borrower moves into long-term care or dies. Equity release also comes with a \u2018no negative equity guarantee\u2019, which means the beneficiaries are not left with a bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Deciding which option is right for you<\/strong><br \/>\nEquity release isn\u2019t for everyone. 10% of over-50s say it\u2019s the option they\u2019re most likely to consider if they need more cash in retirement, while 27% say they\u2019ll retire later or come out of retirement, and 32% say they\u2019re more likely to downsize.<\/p>\n<p>However, 90% of over-50s say they only understand a little about equity release. Some of the common concerns are that they don\u2019t want to risk losing their home, that they won\u2019t be able to leave an inheritance or that their children will be left with a bill, but these are<br \/>\nall misconceptions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source data: <\/strong><br \/>\n[1] https:\/\/www.sunlife.co.uk\/equity-release\/equity-release-report-2020\/<\/p>\n<p>HOME REVERSION PLANS AND LIFETIME MORTGAGES ARE COMPLEX PRODUCTS. TO UNDERSTAND THE FEATURES AND RISKS, ASK FOR A PERSONALISED ILLUSTRATION.<\/p>\n<p>EQUITY RELEASE WILL REDUCE THE VALUE OF YOUR ESTATE AND CAN AFFECT YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR MEANS TESTED BENEFITS.<\/p>\n<p>THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME.<\/p>\n<p>YOUR MORTGAGE IS SECURED ON YOUR HOME, WHICH YOU COULD LOSE IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP YOUR MORTGAGE PAYMENTS.<\/p>\n<p>CHECK THAT THIS MORTGAGE WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS IF YOU WANT TO MOVE OR SELL YOUR HOME OR YOU WANT YOUR FAMILY TO INHERIT IT.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the worst, hope for the best With the rapid changes that have swept the world over the last year resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, some people aged over 50 are facing a different retirement than they may have been expecting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmw-ifa.co.uk\/financialnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}