The Equity Release Council has announced that St James’s Place has joined its membership.

The wealth manager has advised on equity release for over 15 years and says that its joining of the council is because of “the pace of change and innovation in the sector”, making equity release a flexible tool for later life planning.

“We want to ensure we continue to maintain the high standards of advice required for clients to take out equity release plans,” says St James’s Place head of mortgages Paul Johnson.

He adds: “The ERC continues to lead the way in developing the highest standards of consumer-focused advice, so our partnership is a natural evolution of our work in this sector.”

The council boasts of now having over 600 member firms, this number having nearly double in the previous two years.

ERC chief executive Jim Boyd says: “St James’s Place’s membership is a vote of confidence in modern equity release and the rigorous standards that underpin it.

“Our growing membership is becoming increasingly diverse as wealth managers, pensions specialists and mortgage advisers find their clients weighing up a host of decisions in later life, from care planning to the transfer of wealth between generations.”

Late this April, ERC members re-elected Will Hale, Paul Turner and Dan Baines to the executive board for a further two years.