LiveMore has announced two new senior appointments as the specialist later life lender says it continues to grow.

Jon Sturgess joins as sales director, with over 25 years of experience in specialist lending within mortgages and second charge loans.

The firm says Sturgess will support brokers, later-life borrowers as well as mortgage prisoners.

He was previously head of sales at Masthaven Bank, where he helped to build its lending business.

Sturgess has also worked as head of sales at Magellan Homeloans, and has held other senior roles such as sales director at GE Money and head of sales at Firstplus Financial.

The later-life lender has also hired Nina Harrison as partnership manager in its newly-formed growth team.

It says Harrison joins from an equivalent role inside the commercial function of the Cabinet Office, prior to which she worked in business development at Penguin Random House.

The firm says its growth team bridges the gap between marketing and sales, “with the ambition of securing additional revenue, growing brand awareness and developing new routes to market outside of traditional channels”.

It adds: “The appointments come at a pivotal time for the company, amid the soaring demand it is seeing for over-50s interest-only mortgages, fuelled by the cost of living crisis, rising interest rates and a 40-year inflation high.”

Sturgess says: “The market is vastly lacking in solutions for customers whose needs aren’t met by the traditional lending markets, and this is an area where specialist brokers can really come into their own for customers.”

LiveMore managing director of Sales Alison Pallett adds: “Jon will assist in driving the LiveMore brand into the specialist lending arena, and enhance the product range of introducers with a suite of later life lending products.”