Tag Archives: Free Equity Release Calculator

What Are Your Top Key Retirement Solutions?

The Top 18 Equity Release Key Retirement Solutions

As people live for longer and the cost of living increases, it is becoming more and more common for retirees to have financial difficulties during old age. However, a lot of these issues actually arose many years prior to this event, blatantly due to lack of financial planning prior to retirement.

As such, financial planning during retirement has become more important than ever before as managing on a limited budget, fault or no fault of one’s own is a harsh reality for many baby boomers. Therefore, an increasing number of people are looking for flexible ways to get the best value from their existing financial assets in order to address this retirement issue.

The rising popularity of equity release schemes illustrate how much of a growing problem financial insecurity is for many people in retirement. These type of home equity loans offer exactly this type of key retirement solutions many people seek as they usually have no effect on their monthly outgoings.

Let’s look at some of the most significant facts surrounding an equity release mortgage:

  1. Equity release plans allow you to release some of the equity built into your home as usable cash. Both home reversion & lifetime mortgages allow you to do this without the need to sell the house or move out. So, even as you use some of the value of your property, you can continue to live in the house until the end of life, or until you move into a long-term care home
  2. There are two main types of equity release plans – lifetime mortgages and home reversion plans. Lifetime mortgages are like regular mortgages, but only available to people over the age of 55, and have no fixed term. They allow you to release a lump sum of equity from your property which even then remains 100% in your own name. There are usually no monthly payments and the interest charged is added to loan & compounds on a monthly or annual basis. This differs from a home reversion plan where you actually sell a percentage of the property to the reversion provider. In return they provide a tax-free lump sum & a lifetime tenancy agreement is made. Both mortgages will then run on until the end of life, or until you move into care. Most lenders provide a window of 12 months to then sell the property so that the equity release mortgage can be paid off.
  3. A home equity loan calculator can be useful to find out how much equity will be built into your home after a certain period of time. A home equity loan calculator can be useful in a variety of scenarios and is available on a number of financial, comparison and advice websites. A home equity loan calculator is not the same as an equity release calculator and is designed to give you a slightly different information calculus.
  4. A home equity calculator will need some basic information about your property, including the current value of the property, its location, and the yearly rise and fall in the property, in order to work out the equity built into your home. A home equity calculator is therefore a way to calculate simply the amount of equity expected to be built into your home over a certain period of time.
  5. However, an online equity release calculator is a different tool in that it can calculate how much equity one could potentially release from their property. An online equity release calculator UK therefore needs to work out the maximum amount an equity release mortgage provider could potentially afford to lend, based on the expected term of the loan, and the value of your home.
  6. A free equity release calculator is therefore likely to require some basic information about you and your property in order to provide such a calculation. This includes, the age of the youngest enquirer and the current valuation of the property. The free equity release calculator can use this information and based on its database of equity release plans available, can give you a fairly good idea of the maximum release available to you.
  7. An equity release calculator is an application designed specifically to calculate maximum potential release of equity, but there are many other financial tools designed to calculate different things. For instance, there are mortgage repayment calculators that, based on the loan amount, the rate of interest, and term of the loan can calculate how much your payments will be.
  8. There is also a general lifetime mortgage calculator based on the age and income of the enquirer which can work out how much they could potentially borrow. Newer calculus allows some more advanced equity release brokerage’s to offer the interest only mortgage calculator which requires slightly more information such as income details, and details of any adverse credit, in order to ascertain eligibility.
  9. A lifetime mortgage calculator is therefore just one of the many calculation tools available today within the mortgage sector. Depending on what type of application you are using, you may be needed to enter different information relating to your age, health and property, which is relevant to that particular calculation.
  10. Home equity loans provide one of the key retirement solutions to happiness in retirement. There are different borrowing allowances from all the equity release companies, therefore always consult a home loans specialist who can advise on the many forms of home equity mortgages available.
  11. Home reversion equity release plans involve selling a proportion of your home to the equity release lender. There are no monthly repayments with home reversion plans, and the entire amount is recovered when the house is sold, when the proportional share of the equity goes to the lender.
  12. All equity release plans today come with a no negative equity guarantee, which means that your beneficiaries never have to pay anything to the lender even if the equity release loan gets bigger than the property value. This no negative equity guarantee is provided free of charge by the equity release companies, however it is costed into the overall costs and charges of the plan. Should the guarantee not be provided however, the interest rates would be lower on equity release schemes. Therefore any implication of it being free is not entirely true.
  13. Equity release plans are regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and the Equity Release Council (ERC) is the industry trade body that represents everyone that works in the sector, including qualified advisers, providers, lawyers, solicitors etc. Membership of the FCA is mandatory as they provide the licence upon which advisers are able to provide equity release advice. However, membership of the Equity Release Council is not mandatory for advisers or solicitors, however it is for the mortgage providers who offer lifetime mortgage & home reversion products.
  14. Recent research has shown that over 80% of the country’s wealth belongs to people over the age of 60, with over £1 trillion in untapped equity. It also shows that many homeowners over the age of 60 have cash flow problems, and are in fact unable to meet their daily costs. The simple equation for their key retirement solutions lies in the equity tied up in their home. Equity release schemes therefore provides one type of solution, however many such as downsizing property still remain & consequently should always be considered.
  15. According to a recent study by the leading charity Age UK, the two most common ways that people were using their released equity were – home repair or maintenance projects at 46% and paying off existing debts at 35%. Following this statistic come the other lesser reasons to release equity in retirement. These would include holidays, new car, caravan, holiday home, financial assistance for the children, long-term care costs or to create an emergency fund in the bank.
  16. Equity release plans have become increasingly popular after the Financial Services Authority (now FCA) started regulating the equity release sector. This initially started with the regulation of lifetime mortgages in 2004, which later then incorporated home reversion plans from April 2007. All advisers practicing in equity release must have the appropriate qualifications either through the CII (The Chartered Insurance Institute) or the IFS (Institute of Financial Services).
  17. There are a number of independent and comparison websites that offer qualified advice about equity release products, and help users understand which equity release plan could suit them best. Search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo will help you search for any related equity release information needed to enable you to conduct your own research. However, even if you decide which equity release scheme you require you would be unable to go direct to the lender as plans can only be completed by qualified advisers. This offers protection to the lenders to ensure the correct plan is taken out.
  18. The latest type of new equity release mortgage to be invented is the enhanced lifetime mortgage where health can affect the maximum loan you can borrow. Therefore, equity release underwriters assess an enhanced lifetime mortgage as they do with an enhanced annuity plan where a health and lifestyle questionnaire is completed. Depending on the answers & severity of the health conditions, will determine the amount they will lend out. Simply put, the worse the state of health, the greater the maximum release.

There are many facts on equity release offering more concepts for key retirement solutions, as well as about how and why equity release plans have become so popular recently. They also talk about different types of equity release plans that are currently available. For more information visit independent advice websites or consult a qualified equity release adviser.

 

Will a Free Equity Release Calculator be Truly Free?

Will a Free Equity Release Calculator be Truly Free?

Equity release schemes have gained much popularity in recent years, and this demand has fuelled the arrival of several new flexible and secure schemes on the market. This surge in demand and popularity can be illustrated by a simple fact – until a few years ago, clients would have had to visit the equity release provider just to find out the maximum amount they could release.

Then, leading comparison websites like Equity Release Supermarket started offering equity release calculators on their website that allows users to quickly find out the lifetime mortgage and enhanced lifetime mortgage maximum availability; and now more websites offer this nifty little application to the potential customers.

What’s the point?

The point of an equity release calculator is to have a simple way for users to get a rough idea of the maximum amount they can release with a particular provider, or through a particular equity release specialist. By having a free and transparent system, not only do users get a fair idea, but providers and specialists also gain from being able to show users how much money they could potentially raise by doing business with them. So providing a truly free, fair and honest service by way of an equity release calculator benefits all parties.

The equity release calculator is always marketed as a free, impartial and very convenient tool. As such, one simply needs to enter some basic information and the calculator shows you the maximums you could release. But while many reputable companies do provide a transparent and objective service, are all equity release calculators equally transparent? For one, what do companies use your personal data for?

The fact is that some lenders and equity release providers misuse the equity release calculator and use it to gain valuable personal data from unsuspecting users. Your personal details are then used for unsolicited marketing and advertising! While this is a commonly used marketing strategy, it is imperative that these motives be made clear to the public, and not many companies do this.

Thus, equity release calculators are potentially a very convenient, objective and free way to get an approximate idea of how equity release could work for you; but some companies misuse this application for data mining and luring potential customers into their marketing ploy. However, there are reputable companies like Lifetime Mortgages.org.uk that do offer a fair, objective and truly free equity release calculator service.

Multi-functional calculators

However, Compare Equity Release.com also offer two calculators, but uniquely provide their customers with 3 equity release solutions in their answers. Firstly, they offer the standard maximum equity release based on a healthy person and at the same time offer the maximum enhanced lifetime mortgage maximum release aswell. This helps people with adverse health conditions to see the ‘benefit’ in equity release terms that impaired health can offer them by way of an extra tax-free lump sum.

Lastly, Compare Equity Release.com will also offer the usage of their interest only lifetime mortgage calculator. So if you are over age 55 and looking to find out how much an interest only retirement mortgage from the likes of Stonehaven, more2life and now Hodge Retirement Mortgage Plan can offer then visit their website at www.compareequityrelease.com or call them on 0800 028 3104.

 

How do I Establish the Maximum Release with a Home Equity Calculator?

How do I Establish the Maximum Release with a Home Equity Calculator?

Equity release can be a very useful tool and are suitable for those who want to optimise their assets. It allows you to take a release of equity that has built-up in your property over time. This is where retirees benefit from property ownership of the years. Although there have been many peaks and troughs in house values, the overriding effect has been the creation of mass equity in people’s home. However, is this all beneficial when you cannot get your hands on it?

These equity release schemes can be held even while you are continuing to live in the house, but you do retain 100% ownership rights. The equity release market has opened up in recent times, and today, many different types of equity release schemes and providers are available.

Different equity release schemes operate on different terms. For instance, a lifetime mortgage is available to individuals over the age of 55. In the case of joint applicants, the youngest applicant must also over the age of 55 years. So in a lifetime mortgage, the age of the applicant’s and the value of the property are the main criteria used by the lenders underwriters.

In case of enhanced lifetime mortgages (poor health persists), the main criteria are the health of the applicant’s, age of the applicants, and the value of the property. Each case needs to be assessed individually to determine how much equity can be borrowed. However, it is possible to predict how much you could borrow through the different equity release schemes available on the market through a tool known as equity release or lifetime mortgage calculators.

Calculation qualification criteria

An equity release calculator is an online tool that is designed to use the data provided by the user to work how much equity they could release. The equity release calculator can, based on the age of the applicant, approximate the value of the property, health and lifestyle circumstances of the applicant, and current market data, work out how much an applicant will be able to borrow. However, the maximum figure shouldn’t necessarily be withdrawn all at once. The figure should only be used to ascertain whether you financial requirements can be met, or not.

This can be a useful way to not only determine how much money an equity release scheme can help you borrow, but also the type of equity release scheme that could allow you borrow the maximum amount. The home equity release calculator may not be able to give an entirely accurate figure, as that will ultimately depend on the lender, but it proves to be a very good way to find the right direction in the quest to find the right equity release mortgage.

The free equity release calculator tools can be found online, on reputable and reliable financial comparison sites, or on equity release advice and information websites. It is free to use and a great way to get a sense of which equity release plan might be the most suitable for your needs.