Pre-retirees focus on financial agenda

This marks a major shift in the way that people think about retirement, with equity release featuring on the radar long before retirement even begins.

Gary Shaughnessy, managing director of Prudential retail life and pensions, said: "Increasingly we are realising that planning for retirement is no longer a matter of either saving into a pension or relying on the state pension. It has become a case of thinking about how long we will be retired and how we want to make that as comfortable as possible."

Mark Roberts, head of financial regulation at the ifs School of Finance stressed the importance of having a recognised equity release qualification before entering into the sector.

The ifs School of Finance launched the Certificate in Regulated Equity Release (CeRER) in April 2007 to helps advisers enter the sector competently and, above all, in line with FSA regulations.