There is no single best equity release provider in the UK: the right comparison is membership, features, fees and advice. Here is what to check.

If you have searched for the best equity release UK has to offer, you will have met lists and league tables. This guide does not rank lenders. It sets out what is worth comparing between lifetime mortgage providers and where each point is written down. MoneyHelper, which offers "clear, free, impartial help for all your money and pension choices", points readers to the Equity Release Council's directory to find a specialist. Someone who wants their own home and plans looked at can also ask a qualified equity release adviser, free of charge, using the form on this page.

What "best" can and cannot mean for equity release

A lifetime mortgage is priced and offered plan by plan, so the plan that suits one household can be a poor fit for another. How much you borrow, whether you want the money at once or in stages and whether you might pay some interest as you go all change which features matter. Equity release rates explains why this guide prints no rate.

League tables, review scores and awards are other people's judgements, and none of them replaces the plan's own terms. What a lender publishes about its own plans is a better starting point, and this site reads those documents for some of them: Canada Life, more2life, Just Group and Aviva. The site has no connection with any of them and names them as examples, not recommendations.

Whether to release equity at all is a separate question, weighed in is equity release a good idea?. The comparison here holds across the UK; on a Scottish home the lender takes a standard security, the form the 1970 Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act, section 9, requires for securing a debt over land there.

Check Equity Release Council membership and FCA authorisation

The Equity Release Council describes itself as "a voluntary trade body", and its standards are commitments its members make, not law that binds every firm. Its site says only products that meet its Standards provide the protections it outlines. MoneyHelper adds that Council members "must say if a standard is not met with the lenders they recommend and clearly explain the risks to you."

Checking is quick. The Council's members directory can be searched by name or by location, with a member type of Advisers, Solicitors or Providers; a name search under Providers shows whether a lender belongs. For authorisation, the FCA says: "To find out if a firm or individual is authorised, you can search the Firm Checker." Its scams guide counts an approach out of the blue, and pressure to act quickly, among the warning signs.

What membership gives you is set by the standards. In summary, a member's lifetime mortgage has a rate that is fixed, or capped, for the life of the loan; lets you move to a suitable alternative property and take the plan with you, subject to the lender's criteria at the time and to the contract's terms; lets you repay some of the loan without charges, subject to the provider's lending criteria; carries a no-negative-equity guarantee, so the borrower or estate never owes more than the home is worth after reasonable sales costs, on condition that the sale achieves the best price reasonably obtainable and every loan term has been honoured; and waives any early repayment charge if a customer moves permanently into long-term care, once a medical practitioner's certificate is supplied and the loan's terms are met. The UK equity release guide shows where each one comes in, from first conversation to repayment.

Two of those leave room for lenders to differ, through their own lending criteria: how much can be repaid free, and when a move is accepted. Early repayment charges and inheritance options vary too, as the next section shows. The full list is in the Equity Release Council's standards.

Compare the features, as lenders' own pages describe them

Features are where lifetime mortgages differ most. The examples below come from three lenders' own websites, read on 18 October 2026. They show what a feature looks like in practice; they are not a ranking, and the plan's own documents are what count.

Fixed or capped rate

Legal & General's lifetime mortgage page answers yes to whether the interest rate is fixed, and says it is fixed for the life of the loan. Aviva's page has a heading "A fixed interest rate just for you" and says: "We tailor our interest rates to each application so it’ll be unique to your personal situation."

Voluntary repayments

Lenders set their own limits within the Council's standard. Aviva says: "With our lifetime mortgage you can repay up to 10% of your total borrowing across all loans each policy year." Canada Life describes Capital Select Options as offering "Flexibility to repay up to 10% each year". Paying interest is a separate choice with its own conditions. On Legal & General's Optional Payment plan you can pay some or all of the monthly interest and get "a reduced interest rate while you are making monthly interest payments"; you can stop at any time, but "If you choose to stop payments, you can’t restart them and if you have a reduced interest rate this will no longer apply." On Canada Life's Advantage Options, "The discounted interest rate will apply for as long as you continue to service the agreed interest payment each month." Interest-only lifetime mortgages covers these plans, and repaying equity release early what happens beyond the allowance.

Early repayment charges

Plans differ in how a charge is built. Aviva says "you need to choose between fixed percentage or gilt index early repayment charges", and adds: "We've got online booklets explaining how each repayment type works." It is worth asking which structure a plan uses and having the figures in writing.

Downsizing protection

This sits alongside the Council's option to move. Aviva says you can usually take its lifetime mortgage with you to a new home that meets its lending criteria at the time; if the new home does not, you may be able to repay in full without an early repayment charge, which Aviva calls downsizing protection, available once you have had the plan for at least three years. Canada Life's lifetime mortgages page lists "Downsizing protection" under Capital Select Options and "Enhanced downsizing protection" under Advantage Options, and its Advantage page says you will not need to pay an early repayment charge if you downsize after three years. Conditions are each lender's own; moving house with equity release has the wider picture.

Inheritance protection

Aviva calls its version an "optional inheritance guarantee": "you can set aside a percentage of your home’s value to leave for family – it just means you can borrow less (the minimum you can borrow is £15,000). Inheritance will still be reduced." The trade is plain: protecting more means borrowing less. Legal & General and Canada Life each say: "Part of the value of your home can be passed on if you choose our Inheritance Protection option."

Taking the money in stages

Legal & General's product table shows its Interest Roll Up and Optional Payment plans paying out as a lump sum or a series of lump sums, with a minimum additional drawdown amount of "£1,000" for each release, and "Drawdown not available" on its Payment Term plan. Canada Life lists "Add a cash reserve to access money later" under Capital Select Options. Drawdown lifetime mortgages explains how a reserve works.

Compare the whole cost, not only the rate

Set-up fees come on top of the interest. MoneyHelper's range for advice, solicitors, valuation and arrangement together is £1,500 to £3,000, a guide rather than a quote for any plan; equity release fees breaks it down.

Each recommended plan comes with a Key Facts Illustration (KFI), which MoneyHelper says shows the scheme's overall cost and any fees, and can be used to set similar schemes from other providers against it. Illustrations drawn up for the same amount and the same choices let only the plan change.

It also helps to put the same questions to each adviser or lender: does the plan meet the Council's standards, how much can be repaid without a charge, how is an early repayment charge worked out, is there downsizing protection, and what is every fee and when is it due?

Some costs come with a roll-up lifetime mortgage from any lender, and the UK equity release guide explains each: the interest compounds, so the debt grows; less is left for your family; means-tested benefits can be affected (equity release and benefits); and repaying early can bring an early repayment charge. If you want these points weighed for plans on your own home, the form on this page reaches a qualified equity release adviser, able to take you through the illustrations line by line.

Does the adviser search the whole market?

Advice is part of taking out equity release. MCOB 8.2.2G, the FCA Handbook guidance setting out what its equity release chapter is for, names among its aims that customers for equity release transactions receive advice in all cases, and that execution-only sales "are only provided where the customer has rejected advice which has been given, has been warned about the implications of proceeding and has specifically instructed the firm that he wishes to do so", subject to "certain limited exceptions" set out in MCOB 8.6A. Independent legal advice is required too, under the Council's standards, for every customer who takes out equity release. Your own solicitor does that after a plan is agreed; see the solicitor's role.

Advisers do not all cover the same range. The same guidance says firms need to make clear to customers the range of equity release transactions available from them and the basis of the firm's remuneration. Under the rule in MCOB 8.3.2B, a firm offering only lifetime mortgages or only home reversion plans "must include in its disclosure" that it "is limited in that regard in the range of products that it can offer to the customer"; MCOB 8.3.2C gives sample sentences for both kinds of firm, from "We offer a comprehensive range of equity release products from across the market." to one for a firm that sells only home reversion plans. A lender's own route is narrower again: Aviva arranges for you "to talk to an adviser who can only discuss our lifetime mortgage with you".

So the range is worth asking about, of any adviser, including the one this site introduces readers to. MoneyHelper's list of points to confirm includes "if they search the whole market", "what type of equity release products they can offer" and "their fees". How to find and check an adviser goes further.

Questions people ask about comparing equity release providers

Which companies offer lifetime mortgages?

The Council's directory lists its provider members, and searching it is the way to see which lenders belong. The directory lists Aviva, Legal and General Home Finance and Canada Life among its provider members (checked 18 October 2026), and Aviva's and Legal & General's own pages also say they are members. Membership tells you which standards a lender follows, not which plan suits you.

How do I find equity release companies near me?

The lenders quoted here work through advisers, so the local search that helps is usually for an adviser. The Council's directory has a location search: enter a postcode, choose a distance and set the member type to Advisers.

Can I go direct to a lender instead of using an adviser?

Advice still comes into it. Legal & General says "You can only get a Later Life Mortgage through a qualified later life lending adviser", and Aviva's own route uses an adviser limited to its plan, with no separate advice fee because "we’ll pay commission to your adviser upon completion of the loan". Aviva adds: "If you need to borrow more in the future, you'll need to get financial advice again and pay an advice fee."

Next step

The comparison above gets you as far as the right questions. MoneyHelper's guidance stays free whatever you decide. Once you want plans set against your own home and family, the form on this page introduces you to a qualified equity release adviser, and doing nothing stays an option throughout. Your solicitor's independent advice comes later, before anything completes.

Sources (accessed 18 October 2026): Equity Release Council, Professional Standards & Guarantees and Members Directory; MoneyHelper, What is equity release? (web archive snapshot of 19 September 2026); FCA Handbook, MCOB 8.2 and MCOB 8.3; FCA, Protect yourself from scams; Aviva, Equity release; Legal & General, Lifetime mortgages; Canada Life, Lifetime mortgages and Advantage Options; Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970, s. 9 (legislation.gov.uk).