Sounds like a plan!

Jim

If you want to see how quick you can get through it, whilst living the life, and constantly being called "hansum man", and having a bevy of beauties 50 years younger than yourself on each arm, you could do worse than pop out here for 3-6 months…..

Having recently done this for my wife and I the only important comment I can make is that one should consider the option whereby you can access whatever sum is arrived at in installments as you need the money rather than take it all in one large lump. This REALLY mitigates the rate of the compound interest that accrues.

I know that the OP said this does not matter but it is just prudent to not pay more than necessary.

The amount released can be hugely increased if you really do not care about the rate of initial interest charged, we opted for an extra 0.25% and got another £30k avialable!

Also be very awrae that any "bail out" of the scheme in the first 12 years is VERY punitive.

We have no kids either and will use the dosh to ease our later years and have some fun, ie holidays which we never had before!

Cheers, Martin

Agree with NDIY but also find out what the capital gains catch is on it. The parasites operating the scheme will value the house at the absolute minimum they can citing every scratch and dent in the paintwork as excuses Then offer you likely 20% less so they cannot possibly lose money on it. Sometimes there are clauses requiring you to spend your money on the upkeep to their standards, even though it is 'their' property.

I imagine like mortgages the resulting title to the property is then traded on the investment market in blocks of thousands of houses sold as medium term investments to faceless corporations. The one thing you can bet on is that none of it is intended to be for your benefit.

Hi Bazyle,

Actually I disagree on a couple of points:

We had 4 independent valuations by estate agents, two of whom were aware that we were looking at ER, two who were not.

Valuations varied by less than 5%

We then submited our top numbers to the ER perople and when their valuer came round they agreed our top valuation with no quibble.

The property does not become "theirs" until you ( or in our case both of us die. Even then they (ER) only get their portion of the sale proceeds including the accrued interest, your estate gets the remainder.

They make their profit by the way the compound interest accrues very favourably to them.

Cheers, Martin

Hi

I think the first consideration is the math on life expectancy, According to the UK census at a current age of 70 the average life expectancy is another 14.77 years as of the last assessment made a couple of years ago. This number is the average only, many people beat the average a few by decades.

ttps://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesunitedkingdomreferencetables

I think any plans for the future need to take these statistics very carefully into account.

Being caught short a a vulnerable state of age when planning could have avoided it is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.

Regards
John

Personal circumstances and health states vary. If you're still up (!) for the wine and women then presumably still quite healthy. I second the need for independant advice on your circs but caution against so called independant financial advisers – they may be independant of specific banks etc but still look out for themselves.

I'd suggest you have a chat with your solicitor and then an accountant for their less self-interested opinions before speaking to a financial advisor. I've found both those quite approachable on such subjects and often have dealt with the fall-out. Indeed they often do such semi-formal chats foc.

When my Mother-in-law was looking at equity release I solved her need for money by buying a proportion of her house at market prices (OK so i was in a privileged position) but that also meant that when the inevitable happened we had less to inherit but also less to share with the other beneficiaries…it can get complicated.

edit: or you sell up, move to a carribean island, live as a beach bum and then buy some locally available happy termination when you've had enough (have you seen how much Dignitas charges!?)

pgk

Edited By pgk pgk on 31/08/2019 13:29:54

ER is not for me either I'm afraid. I have sons that will need something to help pay down the stupidly large mortgages they have taken on by the time they want to stop working.

Although it's a form of downsizing – I rather admired a Canadian Aunt of ours, who sold up and moved into a very nice high rise apartment which she rented. It was luxurious – Lifts, 24 hour Concierge, underground parking space (covered by CCTV from car to front door), swimmming pool – you name it. The other neighbours were all generally in the same age group and self-organised lot's of events – it was a self contained 'vertical' community! The rent was all inclusive and everything was maintained by her landlord. The capital sum from her home was invested in simple interest savings accounts and she'd worked out that it was more than enough to support her for about 20 years (she was in her early eighties at the time). When she eventually passed (90+) the estate was very simple to administer (no property to sell) and her children inherited the balance that was left.

It seems to be in contrast to people I've heard about over here in UK who downsize to a home "designed for older people" – but where it seems extremely hard for the family to sell up once their parent(s) pass on. They don't seem that cheap and there are often wacking great annual service charges too. I'm sure better solutions could be dreamt up for our aging population (of which I'm now a reluctant member) but frankly I've not seen anything that is quite as appealing (or as affordable) as that Toronto apartment – and of course, I would also have to downsize the workshop…

IanT

Hi there, all,

A widowed and childless uncle of mine did the equity release thing several years ago. I never discussed it with him so I don't have much detail of his experience.

One bit I do remember, though, is that the organisation concerned imposed very stringent house maintenance requirements – obviously they don't want their investment to deteriorate through wear and tear. Still, complete exterior decoration annually seems a bit extreme!

A topic worth pursuing before signing up.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Too many of us are spending the kids inheritance on care home fees. Leaving our assets to our children is a nice idea but it Is increasingly not happening. Spending your life’s savings and assets on your own care shouldn’t be wrong but it’s annoying that if you have no assets then care is covered by the state/council. You can’t take it with you but as you earned it then it should be your choice what you do with it but you can be sure the state will try and grab as much as they can.

Mike

Why do offspring think they are entitled to inheritance? My parents left me sod all and I don't feel obliged to leave any money to family dependents.

Colin, You have a PM

Martin