SOLLA Financial Adviser

What is a SOLLA financial adviser?

A SOLLA financial adviser is a qualified and regulated financial adviser who specialises in later life advice. That includes long-term care planning and equity release. It means the adviser has been accredited by the Society of Later Life Advisers.

The accreditation process is a thorough vetting of the adviser’s knowledge and understanding of how different issues can affect clients and their families at that later stage of life.

How can a SOLLA financial adviser help with my mortgage or financial advice?

We can help in exactly the same way as all other financial advisers – we can arrange your finances to help you meet your goals and objectives. But by being a SOLLA financial adviser, we’re demonstrating a commitment to understanding the wider issues around older people’s needs.

An example might be how health issues can affect our advice process; how the care journey works in practice and how we can ensure you get what you’re entitled to.

So we can do exactly the same job, it’s just that we have committed to understanding non-financial things that will be affecting you as a client.

What qualifications or certifications does a SOLLA financial adviser have?

Your SOLLA financial adviser will have at least a diploma in regulated financial advice. Any financial adviser in the UK must have that diploma level qualification. A SOLLA accredited financial adviser will either have a long-term care qualification as well, or an equity release qualification.

They will also be an accredited member of SOLLA as well. You’ll be able to find their details on the SOLLA website.

How can I find a trustworthy SOLLA financial adviser in the UK?

Go onto the Society of Later Life Advisers website and search for an adviser that’s local to you.

The process of accreditation with SOLLA is that they vet our technical knowledge and understanding of financial advice elements. But they’re also checking whether we as advisers have the soft skills needed to give someone advice when they are potentially in a more vulnerable position.

I’m really confident that everybody on the SOLLA register is a trustworthy adviser in the UK.

What should I consider when choosing a SOLLA financial adviser for mortgage or financial advice?

When you’re considering your needs for financial advice, the first thing to do is check they meet your requirements. For example, do you need or want to meet face-to face or would a virtual meeting work best for you? Does the adviser provide that level of service?

Check whether the adviser is able to offer advice on all the areas that you need. If you’re looking at funding long-term care, you should be seeing an adviser with a long-term care qualification. Otherwise, the adviser is not going to be able to give you an all-round overview of everything you need to consider.

If you’re thinking you might want equity release advice, the adviser must hold an equity release qualification. Once you’ve met the adviser, you’ll be able to decide if they have the right skills to help you.

More important, though, is whether you like them, you can trust them and you work well together. Financial advice is a long journey and it really helps to have a good working relationship with your adviser. They should be someone you can tell almost anything to.

What types of products can a SOLLA financial adviser recommend?

All financial advisers are different in terms of whose products and services they offer. I personally can recommend both long-term care plans and equity release as well as the traditional financial advice products like pensions and investments.

Other advisers may only offer equity release or they may only deal in long-term care. We’re all different.

How does a SOLLA financial adviser assess my financial situation to provide tailored advice?

For most financial advice appointments you first make initial contact with the financial adviser to see if you’re a good fit. They’ll then schedule an initial appointment for you, which is really a fact finding exercise.

We’re getting to know you and your circumstances and what you’re wanting to achieve. You’re also getting to know us and whether we are the right people for you. It’s really important that we understand your current situation as thoroughly as possible.

We can then take that information away, research all the options and come up with a plan to help you move forward. Once you’re happy with the plan we’ll make some recommendations for you to achieve those objectives.

We like to keep on top of it, as well. Once any new plans have been set up we will be continuously monitoring them to make sure that you’re on track to get where you want to go. We make changes where necessary as well.

What information should I have ready when meeting with a SOLLA financial adviser?

It’s a really good idea to have details of existing plans or policies you’d like to talk about. Have your income and expenditure details to hand. But if you don’t have any of these, don’t worry, we can gather this at a later stage.

You might prefer to focus on questions about how we can help you and geting any concerns off your chest, rather than discussing your budget plan. If you don’t have the information about plans or policies we can contact providers on your behalf too. So although these are good things to have if you can, it’s not essential.

I think it’s more important that you have a list of questions to answer. We go through so much information during the meeting that it’s easy to forget things. Sometimes the first appointment can be lengthy and you forget what you wanted to ask – so write them down beforehand.

Also, do let us know in advance if you have any additional needs that we can support you with. Should we hold meetings at a certain time of the day? Do they need to be shorter for you? Let us know if you’re concerned about any mobility requirements or if you have impaired hearing. All of those things will really help us to make sure that we’re supporting you in the best way possible.

How does a SOLLA financial adviser compare different mortgage options?

All of us are different in terms of whose products we can offer. On equity release mortgages, the providers I work with are representative of the whole market. Other advisers out there only offer products from one or two providers, or just one.