Sunday, May 25, 2008

SKI is alive an kicking

The dreadful term Spending the Kids Inheritance (SKIing) is one of the few age-jargon phrases that has stuck in mainstream language.

I am always very caucsious of taking too much notice of research from organisations with a vestied interest in the outcomes, but I must assume there is a grain of truth in the findings from SAGA’s equity release (reverse-mortgage) group. In summary the survey of oldies found:

12% said equity release products were not an option for them because they believed assets like a home should be handed down to their children as an inheritance.

12% answered that they had released equity from their home to pass on to their family as a pre-inheritance.

25% said they would use the equity tied up in their house to enhance their retirement regardless of their younger relatives' expectations of an inheritance.

What the other 51% thinks remains a mystery – good old SAGA refrained from publishing a press release about the research (daft).

18% of the over-65s said they considered equity release to travel around the world, a figure that doubled in the age group between 50 and 54.

Not that great a reading for kids and grandchildren. Dick Stroud

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