- Our later life mortgage advice service
- 8 simple steps to taking out a later life mortgage
- What could you use the money for?
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Our later life mortgage advice service
Here are four good reasons why you should choose Legal & General for later life mortgage advice.
01No advice fee
Unlike others, we don’t charge an advice fee and we make sure you understand every single cost involved with taking out your later life mortgage.
Your home may be your greatest asset. Shouldn’t you rely on someone you can trust?
Further details can be found on How much does a later life mortgage cost?.
02Specialist advice
We began offering lifetime mortgages in 2015. Since then, we’ve lent over £6.22bn and helped over 111,000 customers. On average, in 2022 we processed more than 320 applications each week. To help even more customers we've introduced our Retirement Interest Only Mortgage.
With Legal & General you’re in experienced hands and, with our advice service, you can be confident you're making fully informed decisions when considering a later life mortgage.
A later life mortgage is a loan secured against your home.
03A dedicated advice team
We will never hurry you - you set the pace. You will have your own Adviser and Customer Service Agent who will guide you every step of the way. They are rewarded for great customer service - not for sales.
04Dedicated to helping you make the right choice
It's important to us that we only recommend products we know, and are accountable for. If we don’t have a suitable product for you, then we’ll introduce you to another advice firm, who have access to products from the whole of the market.
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8 simple steps to taking out a later life mortgage
When you take out a later life mortgage with us, we're with you every step of the way. You'll have your own personal advice team who'll guide you through the advice journey.
01Call us
Just call us to find out more. No question is too small, we're ready to take your call and very happy to help whatever the query. There’s no obligation, no pushy sales tactics and no advice fee. We will also check you meet our eligibility criteria, which will mainly focus on property type and ownership, as well as confirming you are aged 55 or over.
If you meet the eligibility criteria and would like to progress, we can then arrange a convenient time for our adviser to call you.
02Talk to family or friends
They can even join your calls and come to adviser meetings, if you want to include them.
03Introducing your adviser and information gathering
The next person you will speak to is your personal adviser. You'll have the option when booking the appointment to have the meeting as a telephone or video call, whichever you prefer.
Ahead of your meeting, you'll be sent a short biography and photo of your adviser, so that you know exactly who you’re talking to when they introduce themselves.
During the call your adviser will gain a deeper understanding of your financial circumstances and discuss any particular needs.The information gathered by the adviser will then be taken away to create a personalised recommendation for you.
04Recommendation
On the call your adviser will talk you through their recommendation, so that you can ask questions and take time to fully understand the product they’re recommending. This is an important meeting so do feel free to invite family or a close friend along to join the call. This can be carried out using a three-way process, which the adviser will be able to provide full details on how this works. If you choose to proceed with our recommendation, we’ll do all the paperwork and submit the application for you.
05Appoint a solicitor
It's important you appoint a solicitor who is qualified to help you with the option you have applied for.
Lifetime mortgage
You’ll need to appoint a solicitor who specialises in equity release to act on your behalf and to provide you with independent legal advice. If your own solicitor isn’t a specialist, we do have a panel of solicitors available who we work closely with.
Alternatively, you can contact the Equity Release Council which has a list of equity release solicitors. To help you understand the legal process further, we also have a guide you can download:
Download our guide to the lifetime mortgage legal process.
Retirement Interest Only Mortgage
Your adviser will inform you if you need to appoint a conveyancer. This is a solicitor who deals with the property, contracts and any documentation needed. To help you understand the legal process further, we also have a guide you can download
Download our guide to the Retirement Interest Only Mortgage legal process
06Valuation
Once we have received your application, the next step is for your property to be valued by our independent valuers. Our number one priority is your health and safety and that of the valuers who visit your home. That is why Legal & General Home Finance will arrange for a free independent valuation of your home for all new applications
There's two ways of carrying out a mortgage valuation:
- a physical valuation, where a valuer will visit your property and carry out an external and internal assessment.
- a desktop valuation, which does not require a valuer to visit your property.
The surveyor will call you to complete a questionnaire and understand whether it's more appropriate for a valuer to visit your property in person, or value it using publicly available information without the need to enter your home (a desktop valuation).
If a desktop valuation is the most appropriate option, this will be completed by an independent valuer using publicly available information to assess the value of your home. This includes getting details about your property from the Land Registry and using online information to review any previous sales history. The final valuation figure will also consider the actual sale prices of similar properties in your area.
Because a desktop valuation may provide us with less information than a valuer visiting your property, we will use 95% of the desktop valuation when we calculate the amount we can lend to you. Read our valuation guide to find out more.
If everything is acceptable to us, we’ll send you your Offer of Loan and the application process will continue.
Your financial adviser will be able to provide more information on the options available.
07Offer and legals
Once the valuation is complete and your application is approved, we’ll send you and your solicitor the offer. Your solicitor will discuss the offer with you and make sure you understand the implications of a later life mortgage. It’s important to take their legal advice before you sign and accept the offer.
If you have applied for a later life mortgages you must insure your property for at least the amount set out in your Mortgage Offer. This should be sufficient to cover the cost of rebuilding the property.
08Money received
A completion date will be agreed and the money will be released to your solicitor, who will repay any existing mortgage or debt against your home. If you’ve chosen to pay the solicitor's costs out of the loan, they’ll deduct these before paying the remainder to you.
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What could you use the money for?
You may be planning to use the money to help your family, or for yourself so you can really enjoy this stage of life.
Repay mortgage/debts
Pay off existing loans such as a mortgage, rather than sell and move. Think carefully before
securing other debts against your home. You may have to pay an early repayment charge.Helping family
Offer financial support to loved ones for university fees, wedding costs, or climbing the property ladder. Remember, if you gift money in this way, the recipient might need to pay inheritance tax in the future.
Home improvements
Enhance your home with a new extension, or adaptations that make it possible to stay in the
home you love for as long as possible.Lifestyle improvements
Like pay for care in the home. Or get additional income to make life more comfortable or to bridge a gap until another income source becomes available.
"I found Legal & General to be great. Omar the representative that was in charge of looking after us was very professional, very friendly and was answering all of our questions and he just made us feel very comfortable, he was very good." - June, Oxfordshire.

Explore later life mortgages
Whether you're looking to pay off an existing mortgage, or to release some equity from your home to spend on yourself, your home or your family, one of our later life mortgages could help

Get later life mortgage advice from our specialists today
Start getting answers to your questions about later life mortgages in less than 60 seconds, or request a call back from our team.
Monday to Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday 9:00am - 1:00pm
We may record and monitor calls.
More about later life mortgages
Find out more about equity release and your other later life mortgage options.
Lifetime Mortgage
A type of equity release.
A lifetime mortgage is a loan secured against your home, available to homeowners aged 55 or over.
There’s nothing to repay until you die or move permanently into long-term care. If you have the financial means, you can choose to pay off some or all of the monthly interest. It would reduce the amount of interest added over the life of the mortgage and reduce the amount you’ll owe in the end.
If you're looking for a way to supplement your income in retirement, this could be an option for you. However, there may be cheaper ways to borrow money.
Retirement Interest Only Mortgage
A type of residential mortgage.
A Retirement Interest Only Mortgage is a loan secured against your home. You have to pay the interest off monthly, but the full amount of the loan isn't usually repaid until you die or move out of the home into long-term care. As a last resort, your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments.
If you're looking to release some money from your home to pay off an existing mortgage, this is one of the options available to you.