Personally, I don’t think this is cut and dried.

There remains a ‘remortgage good, second charge bad’ belief which still is accepted by many as an undisputed truth.

However, the reality is it owes more to having been repeated so often that it must be so, rather than a view backed up by known facts.

Historically, challenging a given truth has got many into trouble.

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Along with many players within the industry, Fluent Money has worked hard to shine daylight onto the entrenched position held by many brokers that remortgaging is the only way they wish to advise their clients.

Even with the FCA’s requirement for second charge to be part of the process of explaining the options to customers seeking to raise capital, many shut the door on any further discussion of second charge as a solution.

 

Sizeable rump unconvinced

I would love to report the programme of education which we and others embarked upon has been a full and total success.

Sadly, although we can report plenty of cases where brokers now understand there are many and varied situations where second charge should be used, there still remains a sizeable rump of advisers who have yet to be convinced or wish to remain ignorant about the second charge sector.

The sad fact is that many customers are, instead of being referred to second charge options, shoehorned into an inappropriate remortgage or told there is nothing that can be done.

What I want to illustrate is the simple fact that there is no such thing as a one size fits all solution to capital raising.

What worries me is that the regulator has not gone far enough in expecting advisers to ensure that customers are appraised of all the options around capital raising, by insisting on proper comparison.