James Sudworth

Many of you within the industry will know me well, be it through my work with the Equity Release Council, or propping up the bar at an industry event. After graduating with a 1^st class law degree I worked at Equilaw, a leading equity release specialist solicitor before moving into financial advice around 8 years ago.

I’ve always been driven to do the best at anything I set my mind to. Whilst I may not ever be the best at something, I always give 100%. This is what led me to the Equity Release Council oh so many moons ago, actively reaching out to offer my support to other advisers who were new to the industry, who couldn’t gain sufficient experience to be taken on by the bigger networks. I then contributed toward what is now an industry standard Competency Framework Document that new advisers can use to benchmark their advice standards against.

Being a member of many adviser Facebook groups, I am humbled by the number of new participants to the market who actively reach out for help and support to expand their knowledge, and even more humbled by the support offered by other advisers in what is usually a very competitive industry.

My call to action to all industry participants is to continue this supportive framework so that we can better the industry as a whole, leading to more mainstream adoption and acceptance of later life lending products, that can offer such a lifeline to those who need it the most.