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Key Equity Release is proud to be part of the Key Group family. We help our customers unlock a better retirement by accessing some of the wealth tied up in their properties.
Trusted award-winners
We've had 17,000+ excellent Trustpilot reviews and won 80+ awards, including Equity Release Adviser of the Year 2023
Covered by the FSCS
Equity release advising and arranging is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so you'll be protected by up to £85,000
Key is a specialist later life finance company focusing on the over 55s. We provide expert equity release advice and consider all your later life options to help find the right one to meet your needs. We're passionate about helping our customers reach their financial goals in later life.
Key offers personalised advice to help you take control of your finances. We're here to help put the life in later life.
We've been around for over 25 years. From our early days to helping more than a million people see if equity release was right for them, learn more about our story.
1998 - Humble beginnings
Founded in 1998 with just six people, we were originally known as Home Income Gold and mainly offered home income plans.
2001 - A new name
We changed our name to Key Retirement Solutions and expanded our focus to cover all equity release advice services.
2004 - New owners
A few years later in 2004, our directors bought Key from our previous owners, Countrywide.
2004 - Our first awards
In just 6 years, we went from starting out to being named Best Equity Release Mortgage Broker by Mortgage Strategy. In the same year, Financial Adviser also named us Equity Release IFA of the Year.
2005 - More awards...
2005 saw us win 6 more awards in recognition of our role in the equity release market, including Best Equity Release Broker (Mortgage Introducer).
2006 - 7 more awards
We were proudly named Best Equity Release Broker by What Mortgage? This took our total to 15 awards in just 3 years, with more to follow!
2007 - New products
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.
We also picked up 6 more awards along the way.
2008-2012 - Establishing ourselves
22 more awards across the 4 year period, including 3 in our 10th year, helped us firmly establish ourselves in the equity release market.
2013 - New owners
In June 2013, Phoenix Equity Partners bought a majority stake in our parent company, Key Group. As the business continued to grow, we moved into a new head office at Baines House in Preston.
We picked up 3 more awards to celebrate.
2014 - Another new name
A new name and image weren’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.
2015-2016 - The awards keep coming in
5 more followed, meaning we'd now hit more than 50 awards in total!
2017 - More new owners
In August 2017, Phoenix Equity Partners sold their stake to leading global private markets firm, Partners Group creating new opportunities to consider how we build on our legacy to serve increasing numbers of customers.
5 awards that year made it a double celebration for all of us at Key!
2018-2021 - Proud of our achievements
21 awards across these few years helped our total jump to over 70 and left us immensely proud.
2022 - A new name, same focus
Following significant hard work over the pandemic to evolve our offering while supporting customers, colleagues and partners, we rebranded to Key Later Life Finance in March 2022. This underlined the evolution of the business to provide access to a range of later life lending products including equity release, retirement interest only mortgages (RIO’s), and later life mortgages as well as estate planning and Lasting Power of Attorney services.
2024 - Back to our roots
We made a return to our Key Equity Release brand. We continued with our commitment to consider all later life finance options to find the right one for our customers.
Every year, we come together to support the amazing work for a number of different charities with fundraising events and volunteer work.
We've supported the likes of Brian House Children’s Hospice, specialising in palliative care for children, Boathouse Youth in Blackpool and Barnardo’s, both incredibly important children’s charities for the local area.
This year, as well as donating funds raised through various charity events, we’ll also be donating our time for various projects with a charity. It’s an amazing opportunity for us to give something back to our local community.
Key is also committed to supporting vulnerable customers and is a Dementia Friend.
Page last updated: Tuesday 11 February 2025