Monday - Thursday
9:00am - 8:00pm
Friday
9:00am - 5:30pm
Saturday
9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday
Closed All Day
Key, Baines House,
4 Midgery Court, Fulwood,
Preston, PR2 9ZH
We believe that good advice is key and we’re passionate about helping you make the most of your retirement. From equity release to creating important legal documents such as your will, our services help you take control of your finances - and life.
Founded in 1998 with just six people, we were originally known as Home Income Gold and mainly offered home income plans until 2001 before we started to focus on all equity release advice services. It was at this point we also began advising all the products in the market and renamed as Key Retirement Solutions. A few years later in 2004, our directors bought Key from our previous owners, Countrywide.
In May 2007, after bringing in a number of new faces to our family, we launched our estate planning service to help customers focus on more than just their retirement finances, writing wills and lasting powers of attorney.
Our services didn’t stop there either and in June 2010, we launched our annuities service to help customers select the right retirement income product for them. Just over 2 years later, we continued our expansion in the annuity market by buying another business called Annuity People.
In June 2013, Phoenix Equity Partners bought a majority stake in our parent company, KR Group. As the business continued to grow, we moved into a new head office at Baines House in Preston. A new name and image wasn’t too far away either, which came in October 2014 when we rebranded to the name of Key Retirement, reflecting the expansion of our range of services.
After nineteen years of service, our Chief Executive and Founder, Colin Taylor, retired in August 2017 at the same time as Phoenix Equity Partners sold their stake to the global private markets investment manager, Partners Group creating a real feeling of a changing of the guard and new dawn.
In 2018, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary with another rebrand to Key; the name we know and love today. The original six people that we started with has grown to over 500 for KR Group in total and that’s not the only thing that multiplied. Over the years, we’ve picked up 60 awards and amassed more than 14,000 Trustpilot reviews, consistently retaining our ‘excellent’ 5-star rating.
We’re very proud of all of our awards and the ratings our customers have given us as it’s helped us become the leading independent equity release advisory service in the UK.
We’re delighted to have been recognised by you and the industry, for the work we do in providing financial advice to the over 55s
Every year, we come together to support a number of different charities with fundraising events and volunteer work
Throughout 2018, we supported Brian House Children’s Hospice raising an incredible £30,000. Brian House, based in Blackpool, is a specialist unit within Trinity Hospice specialising in palliative care for children. As one of only a handful of local children’s hospices in the UK it currently supports over 80 families.
For 2019, our chosen charities are the Boathouse Youth in Blackpool and Barnardos, both incredibly important children’s charities for the local area. This year, as well as donating funds raised through various charity events, we will also be donating our time for various projects with the charity. It’s an amazing opportunity for us to give something back to our local community.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our story and hope we can help you get what you need from retirement.