Lighthouse Group PLC Equity Release Council Membership

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Lighthouse Group PLC

29 March 2017

 
 Press Release   29 March 2017 
 

Lighthouse Group plc

("Lighthouse", the "Group" or the "Company")

Equity Release Council Membership

Lighthouse Group plc (AIM: LGT), the national financial adviser of choice for Middle Britain, is pleased to announce that through Lighthouse Advisory Services Limited, its wholly-owned subsidiary, it has been granted membership to The Equity Release Council. Lighthouse is the first financial services network organisation to join the Council.

Membership is recognition of the increased role equity release plays within the retirement planning landscape and the breadth of options in the mortgage market. Lighthouse's customers will continue to be assured of high quality advice from advisers, underpinned by the standards of The Equity Release Council (Council) helping to guarantee that the highest levels of service are provided to consumers.

The protections associated with The Council and its members include the no negative equity guarantee, the right to tenure, the ability to port a loan to a suitable property and a requirement that any customer taking out an equity release product must receive both legal and independent financial advice.

Joining comes at a time of significant momentum for the equity release sector, as lifetime mortgages became the fastest growing mortgage segment in 2016, with the number of customers rising by 22% and the value of lending exceeding GBP2bn for the first time in a single year.

Donna Bathgate, Chief Operating Officer of the Equity Release Council, comments: "I am delighted to welcome Lighthouse as our first network member. Its decision is a clear indication of the growing appetite for equity release as more people recognise the value of using their housing wealth to support a comfortable retirement. Lighthouse's reputation is highly respected within the advisory community and I look forward to working with them to help ensure more customers are able to access the advice they require."

Malcolm Streatfield, Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse Group plc, added: "Becoming a member of The Council was a natural progression for us with the Group having arranged GBP885 million of mortgage funds for 5,000 customers in 2016. Equity release is a natural extension of this activity and has become an increasingly important area for our business in recent years. We are advising more customers on equity release than ever before and want to ensure we provide all our customers with first class advice, underpinned by robust standards. We are delighted to be part of The Council and look forward to working alongside it to help more people realise the value of equity release for retirement where appropriate."

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

 
 Lighthouse Group plc 
 Malcolm Streatfield -                          Tel: [phone] 
  Chief Executive                                               5640 
  Peter Smith - Group Finance 
  Director 
                                          www.lighthousegroup.plc.uk 
                                 [e-mail] 
 
 finnCap Limited 
 (Nominated Adviser and                        Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7220 
  Broker to the Company)                                        0500 
 Adrian Hargrave / Emily 
  Watts 
 

Media enquiries:

 
 IFC Advisory Limited 
 Graham Herring/Tim Metcalfe/Heather               Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Armstrong                                              3053 8671 
 [e-mail]   www.investor-focus.co.uk 
 

About Lighthouse Group plc

Lighthouse has been listed on AIM since 2000 as an integrated financial services company for investors, coupled with significant scale in terms of distribution through financial advisers and wealth managers and its fully diversified business model.

As one of the UK's largest autonomous financial advice and wealth management groups, Lighthouse provides a comprehensive range of services to businesses and individuals and is retained by most of the major trades unions and other affinity groups to advise their combined memberships of over 6 million members.

The Group aims to increase its relationships with, and the benefits it derives from, its relationships with affinity groups and professional partners.

In addition to a wide range of financial advice, the Group has developed innovative products to meet the specific needs of its retail and corporate customers. These comprise:

-- Luceo Asset Management, launched in September 2016 to provide a range of investment solutions to retail investors. The initial three solutions comprise multi-manager, fund of fund, investment portfolios matching to customers' agreed risk profiles, with Octopus Investments Limited as the initial Investment Adviser and the newly established Lighthouse Zurich Platform, in partnership with Zurich; and

-- The Lighthouse Pensions and Life Trusts, unbundled multi-employer Master Trust products that provide cost-effective and one-stop shop solutions for small- and medium- sized enterprises ("SMEs"), to meet their obligations to establish auto-enrolment compliant pension schemes for their employees by 31 March 2018. (up to 1 million SMEs have to do so) and provide death-in-service life assurance cover for all of their employees aged between 16 and 65, for the same cost per benefit, at very competitive rates, regardless of age, gender, location or pre-existing medical conditions.

Lighthouse operates from its headquarters in London as well as having principal operating offices in Stockport and Woodingdean, near Brighton.

For more information please visit: http://www.lighthousegroup.plc.uk/

About The Equity Release Council:

The Equity Release Council is the industry body for the equity release sector, which represents over 500 members including providers, qualified financial advisers, solicitors, surveyors and other industry professionals.

It works to ensure a safe equity release market for consumers, by operating rigorous Standards for the provision of advice and products which guarantee security of tenure and financial protections. 2016 marks the 25th anniversary since the first industry Standards were created for equity release in 1991. Since then, over 370,000 consumers have taken out an equity release plan from Council members, drawing on almost GBP18bn of housing wealth.

The Council also works with consumers, industry and policy makers to improve awareness and understanding of equity release and the potential for housing wealth to help solve many of the financial challenges facing people over the age of 55 across the UK.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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March 29, 2017 02:02 ET (06:02 GMT)