The average amount of property equity released by a client referred from a financial services professional is 16% higher than seen in the wider market – £133,048 – shows a new report from Key Partnerships.

This data concerns Q3 2022 and, broken down by professional type, shows that clients referred by an accountant released the most, at £183,334, followed by clients hailing from wealth managers, at £161,313.

Mortgage broker clients released an average of £147,793 from their homes and general independent financial adviser (IFA) clients saw £117,415 released in the third quarter of this year.

Mortgage brokers remain the most common type of introducer, the report adds, providing 64% of such clients, with IFAs bringing in 11% of business and 9% coming from wealth managers – “a trend which has been fairly consistent since Key Partnerships was founded.”

The report also states that referred clients take a keen interest in inheritance issues – 46% use equity release to give an early inheritance to family and 15% use it as a way of “managing potential inheritance tax liabilities”.

When Key Partnerships asked the 850 survey participants their views on referrals over the next one to three years, 41% said this side of their business will likely grow, with 17% of these expecting it to grow ‘substantially’, 24% ‘modestly’ and 26% saying it will remain similar to what it is now.

Meanwhile, 17% of the overall number of people asked said it may be ‘slightly lower’ and 17% that it will be ‘much lower’ than it is now.

And over the next three to five years, people who believe they will see modest growth rises to 45% and, for substantial growth, 27%.

Just 2% said it is likely to be slightly lower, and 2% again that it will be much lower.

Key Partnerships business development director Jason Ruse comments: “The differences in how customers in the introducer market use equity release to the wider market reflect the development of the later life lending market.

“The increased focus on inheritance issues and the interest in using equity release for IHT planning underline the breadth of the equity release market and the potential for introducers to expand the services they offer clients through a referral partnership.

“While there are clear differences, some things remain the same and introducers will have clients feeling the pinch from the cost-of-living crisis emphasising the role of equity release in meeting a wide range of customer needs.”