In this article, Trainee Solicitor, Chelsea Jeffs outlines everything you need to know about non-molestation orders.
We advise many clients on releasing equity from their assets, an increasingly popular financial planning tool for an active retirement. Increasing numbers of people are blessed with good health but restricted by the effects of the poor performance of pension funds and low annuity rates over the last two decades. Many people of pension age find themselves ‘asset-rich but cash-poor’. With a sluggish property market, making it hard to sell up and buy a smaller property, this could be an increasingly common way of helping people to boost their spending power.
The main types of scheme offered include:
Home Income Plans
The principle is that a mortgage is taken on the property and the lump sum is used to buy an annuity, or invested to provide an income which is used in part to pay the interest on the mortgage. The mortgage reduces the value of your estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. However, the net increase in income is rather low, as much of the income generated goes to paying the additional mortgage interest.
Roll-up Plans
A lump sum is withdrawn and the interest payable on it ‘rolls up’ during the rest of your lifetime. The amount to be repaid will be an unpredictable proportion of the total value of the house and will depend on both the future movement in house prices and the prevailing interest rates (unless fixed at the outset). Because of the risk involved, Roll-up Plans are seldom used to advance more than half of the equity value in a house. The big plus point is that there are no repayments during your lifetime.
Home Reversion Plans
Your house is sold to the lender at a discount to current market value and you are then given the right to remain in the house for life. These schemes can be set up so that a fixed proportion of the value of the house is sold, not 100 per cent. There are no capital or interest payments.
Trust in your advisers is crucial to all aspects of law but is especially important when dealing with the delicate issues relating to property and finance matters. Our Equity Release specialists draw on vast experience in property and in tax, wills and financial planning work.
Cheryl Phimister says “We are always happy to advise clients on a generic basis with regard to equity release products and we are also fully authorised and able to advise on all legal and conveyancing aspects of equity release. However, it is important that all clients obtain clear independent financial advice regarding any individual equity release product.”
Our team offers a fixed-price legal package to fully advise on all legal aspects of the equity release product and on important associated matters such as Wills and lasting powers of attorney. For any clients that we introduce to an appropriate independent financial adviser, we will set any introducer fee received from the financial adviser against the legal fees, therefore reducing your costs.