From first figure to money arriving, the process has six steps and several different people in it. This sets out what each one is for, who does it, and which two of them exist to protect you.
Six steps, who does each one, and where you can stop. Two of them are legal requirements rather than sales stages, which is worth knowing before anybody describes them as formalities.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
From your age and what the property is worth. Using it searches nothing and records nothing, no personal details are needed, and nothing is committed.
They go through your circumstances, the alternatives, the effect on benefits and on your estate, and whether it is right at all. This is where most of the real work happens.
A document showing the rate, the fees, and what would be owed at future dates. Take it home. It is the single most useful thing you will be given.
They confirm what the property is worth and report anything about it that affects the lender. This is where the property questions on this site come in.
Independently, and separately from anybody else in the process. You sign to confirm you understood what you were told.
Any existing mortgage is repaid first out of the amount released, and what reaches you is the balance.
Nobody should be rushing you at any point in that. If a step is moving faster than you are comfortable with, it is entirely reasonable to stop and think, and a good adviser will expect you to.
Advice and independent legal advice are not optional stages that a keen customer could skip. You cannot take equity release out without both, and the Equity Release Council makes the second a condition of membership: “All customers who take out equity release need to receive independent legal advice.”
If anybody presents either as a formality to be got through, that is worth noticing. They are the two points in the process designed to protect you, and the solicitor is yours rather than anybody else’s.
Step four. The valuer reports what the property is and what it is worth, and everything in our property guides is what they may be looking at. If you know something about your home is unusual, raising it before that visit saves time rather than causing trouble.
The property guides, feature by feature →Equity release requires repaying any existing mortgage. Money released, plus accrued interest, would need to be repaid upon death or moving into long-term care.
There are two kinds. A lifetime mortgage is a loan secured against the house and is what most people mean; a home reversion plan means selling part of it. Roughly speaking, one grows a debt and the other gives up a share.
A loan secured against the house. Your name stays on the deeds and you keep owning it. There is nothing to pay each month unless you choose to, so the interest is added to what you owe and the debt grows.
55 is Legal & General’s youngest applicant on their published lending criteria. Other lenders set their own.
The five protections →You sell all or part of the house to a provider and live there under a lease. There is no loan, so there is no interest and nothing compounds. You are paid substantially less than market value for the share, and that discount is how the provider is paid.
The minimum age is commonly 60 or over, higher than the 55 typical for a lifetime mortgage.
How a reversion works →Equity Release Council standards and Legal & General lending criteria, both accessed 6 September 2026. Reversions have their own separate product standards, which we have not opened: ask an adviser for those specifically rather than the lifetime mortgage ones.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
Six, from first figure to money arriving: you find out the figure, you speak to an adviser, you get an illustration in writing, a valuer visits, your own solicitor advises you, and it completes. Different people are responsible for each one.
Advice and independent legal advice. You cannot take equity release out without both, so neither is a formality a keen customer could skip, whatever anybody calls them.
A document from your adviser showing the rate, the fees, and what would be owed at future dates. Take it home. It is the single most useful thing you will be given, because it puts the cost in writing before you commit to anything.
At any of the six steps. Nobody should be rushing you at any point, and if a step is moving faster than you are comfortable with it is entirely reasonable to stop and think.
It is repaid first, out of the amount released, and what reaches you is the balance. That is a requirement rather than a choice.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
One qualified equity release adviser. They will go through your figures and tell you if there is a better answer. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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