As part of the agreement, Air provide the mortgage club’s directly authorised advisers with its later life lending training.

The training will help advisers with the skills, confidence and practice tools needed to broaden customer conversations and ensure all suitable later life lending options are fully considered.

The programme has been built around three key pillars including qualification support, an Air Academy One Day Accelerator Programme and a lead generation workshop.

The partnership comes as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is examining whether barriers in the advice process are limiting consumer access to later life lending solutions such as lifetime mortgages and retirement interest-only (RIO) products.

Air chief executive officer Will Hale says: “This is a landmark, first-of-its-kind partnership for Air, bringing together our full suite of training, accreditation and business support into a single, joined-up programme.”

“We’re delighted that partner is Simplybiz Mortgages, which recognises both the scale of the opportunity in later life lending and the importance of acting now, particularly as the FCA examines whether the market is doing enough to support customers and remove barriers to access.”

Simplybiz Mortgages chief executive officer Martin Reynolds adds: “Later life lending is becoming an increasingly important part of the advice landscape, yet it remains underutilised, often because advisers lack the confidence, structure or support to fully engage across all the products sectors within it.”

“With the FCA market study placing a clear spotlight on the sector, now is the time for firms to ensure they are equipped to deliver the full range of later life lending options to their customers.”

“This partnership with Air reflects our commitment to getting ahead of that shift. By giving our members access to a structured, end-to-end programme, we’re enabling them to deliver better outcomes for customers whilst creating new commercial opportunities.”