Here are some questions to think about:

• Is your retirement income lower than you’d like it to be?
• Would you like to top it up to make your retirement more comfortable?
• Would you like a lump sum to spend how you choose?
• Perhaps you’d like to pay off your mortgage, make some home improvements, or buy a holiday home?
• Perhaps you’d like to help your children get onto the property ladder?

You may be finding times hard in retirement, or your options limited. You might not have put sufficient away into a pension. Or your pension might not have performed as well as you’d hoped.

At the same time, you might have discovered that a substantial part of your wealth is tied up in your house: perhaps you’ve paid off a large part, if not all, of the mortgage, and the value of your property has gone up over the years, too. But a valuable roof over your head is of little practical use – you can’t spend it.

There are, however, schemes that let you raise money from your property – as either a lump sum or regular income, or both – and at the same time give you, and a partner, the right to remain living there until you both die. They are called equity release schemes.

There are two types of equity release scheme available in the market, with several variations on each. The lifetime mortgage involves taking out a new loan secured on your property, and the home reversion plan involves selling a share of ownership of your property.