We appreciate that nothing stands still, and innovation is at the forefront of providing an improved lifetime mortgage application, allowing for a more streamlined journey for both advisers and applicants alike.

As a dedicated equity release lender, we've listened to you and created a new and improved online application form. Beginning with speaking to a panel of advisers to establish needs, we've been able to use our expertise to deliver a user experience that's been designed by equity release specialists for equity release professionals.

What does our new online application aim to achieve?

Based on your feedback, we quickly established that our updated online application platform needed to focus on several key priorities, in order to truly deliver an enhanced user experience and simplified journey.

These included:

Creating a more dynamic and adaptable question set that captures more information upfront
Improving design and usability, with a focus on accessibility considerations
Including the ability to save and resume an application
Offering a suite of onboarding resources to help users make the most of the new platform
Building a platform that can continue to be developed and further improved

What does this mean for me on a day-to-day basis?

Dynamic question sets

One of the key improvements on our updated online application form compared to the previous version has been the addition of an amended question set. This not only aims to capture more information upfront (minimising the usual email ‘ping pong’ when further information might be required, in turn reducing referrals and the time to offer), but also presents you with a dynamic user journey that adapts to the case specifics and only shows relevant questions.

You'll likely notice this the most under the ‘loan purposes’ section - for instance, selecting ‘home improvements’ will bring up specific questions surrounding the nature and scope of the alterations to the property and allowing you to enter it all in on the initial application for us to check against our criteria once submitted.

Improved design and usability

In addition to dynamic questions, improving the user journey and overall usability of the form has been another key priority for us. As a user, you'll benefit from a number of user journey improvements, including:

Improved navigation and ability to move directly between sections that have been completed
Clearer on-screen guidance on how to fill out the questions
Postcode lookup functionality on more address-based sections
The ability to save progress throughout the form
A downloadable copy of the application form, once submitted, which reflects the dynamic question set you answered

We've given special thought to accessibility too, in order to make this an application journey for everyone. It enables users to not only change the font size to suit their needs, but it's also been designed with colour contrast considerations, ensuring that it's easily viewable to as many people as possible. Additionally, we've improved usability for those unable to use a mouse, with the ability to tab through screens and complete the entire form using only a keyboard. The application will also work on any screen size and has larger clickable areas added for those using tablets.

What next?

To ensure you've the information at your fingertips to make the most of the new platform, we've created a suite of onboarding resources.

Watch our onboarding video here

Read our FAQs document here

What conversations should advisers be having with clients?

This is the first step for this new platform, and we'll look forward to continue to develop and enhance it further to make sure it meets your needs and offers you the best user journey in the market. For now though, we hope this article has been useful, and gives you greater context to make the most of this new tool at your disposal.