Menu Close
Plain English

Everything explained in ordinary words

Equity release runs on words most people meet for the first time in a letter. Everything gathered here is written to be understood on a first reading, by somebody who has never bought a financial product.

The vocabulary, and the guides that translate it. Start with whichever word somebody used that you did not recognise.

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.

How this page is kept
Written by
Equity Release Facts editorial
Last checked
6 September 2026
Next review
6 March 2027

Jargon is not an accident

Equity release runs on words most people meet for the first time in a letter: roll-up, loan to value, drawdown, no-negative-equity guarantee, deed of consent. Nobody is born knowing them and there is nothing clever about using them without explanation.

Everything gathered here is written to be understood on a first reading, by somebody who has never bought a financial product in their life. Where a term has to appear, it is explained where it appears rather than assumed.

What everything here does

Explains the word where it is used, rather than assuming it.

Uses ordinary words in preference to industry ones, every time there is a choice.

Shows the arithmetic instead of describing it.

Says what it does not know, and what it could not check.

Start anywhere

The glossary is the reference; the rest are the explanations. If you only read one, read the one about rolled-up interest, because it is the thing people most often say they wish they had understood sooner.

If something here is still not clear

That is a fault in our writing rather than in your reading, and we would rather know. The glossary has 279 terms in it and every one is meant to be understandable on its own, without having to read three other entries first.

Nothing on these pages is trying to move you towards a decision. They exist so that when somebody does explain a product to you, you already know what the words mean.

Worth knowing

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.

How this page is kept
Written by
Equity Release Facts editorial
Last checked
6 September 2026
Next review
6 March 2027

Read next

Checked 10 September 2026
[6.20%]lowest lump sum rate, fixed for life[lender rate sheets] [6.44%]lowest drawdown rate[lender rate sheets] 43.5%most you could release at 70LTV schedule, July 2026 54%most you could release at 80 or overLTV schedule, July 2026 55Legal & General's youngest applicantL&G lending criteria, 6 September 2026 £0to pay each month unless you choose tosubject to lender terms [6 to 8 weeks]typical time from application to money £70,000Legal & General's minimum for a houseL&G lending criteria, 6 September 2026

Questions people ask about this

Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.

What is the Plain English Library?

The pages on this site that explain a term or a document in ordinary words, gathered in one place. It is for somebody who has been handed a word and wants to know what it means before anybody sells them anything.

How is it different from the glossary?

The glossary is one page of short definitions you can search. This gathers the fuller explanations, where a term needs more than a sentence to be useful.

What if the word I am looking for is not here?

Try the glossary, which carries the short definitions and covers far more ground than this page does. Everything there is on one page, so your browser own find works across the lot.

Worth knowing

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.

Talk it through with an adviser

Takes about two minutesFree, no obligation, and nothing committed

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.

Advice is required to proceed with equity release and there may be other options which better suit your circumstances. Only if your case completes would an advice fee be payable, and the adviser will tell you what theirs is before you commit to anything. Other lender and solicitor fees may apply.

We pass your details to one adviser and nobody else.