Playing the generation game with family mortgage planning

When Ed Payne launched Family First Finance, he did so after years of watching lenders reject what he saw as perfectly viable cases.

"I was working for lenders for a long time, and I was just starting to get frustrated; they were turning away good business," he said. "And I was ready to work for myself. Ultimately, I've always liked helping people and that sits at the core of everything I do."

The business, which also operates under the Clifton Mortgage brand, initially focused on joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) and family-driven lending. But the market has evolved in different directions. "We thought collateralised charges and JBSPs would really take off. They haven’t quite worked out that way."

Instead, Payne now finds himself navigating a more complex landscape, driven by demographic shifts, regulatory change, and a growing need for cross-generational wealth strategies.

Rethinking the needs of families

Advising today’s borrowers often means looking beyond the immediate client. "Too often, advisers jump straight into solution mode. Whereas actually, by sitting back, listening, using soft questioning techniques, you can understand things."

That includes dynamics like parental gifting, future inheritance concerns, and how relationship breakdowns might impact financial arrangements. "A gift isn’t always a gift," he noted. "Families are polite. They don’t always say what they really mean."

"Parents will sign a letter stating, yes, this gift freely given. But what happens if that couple then split up in six months’ time and their sizable deposit has gone into it? So, we have to have quite blunt conversations with them."

Lenders are slowly responding. "Nationwide, NatWest, a number of other lenders will allow you to do a gift with a reservation. You can have a gift to be repaid whereby they'll say, ‘I expect to be repaid on sale of property’."

Clients often arrive with misconceptions shaped by mainstream media headlines. "We still get people surprised they can get a 95% mortgage. They always could. It’s just not what they hear in the news."

Later life lending, evolving roles

Around 30% of Payne’s clients are over 60, and another 40% are first-time buyers. Increasingly, those groups intersect. "I'll often end up doing two transactions. I'll do a capital-raising one for the customers gifting and a purchase for the first-time buyer at the other end."

That reality pushed him to qualify in equity release. "You can't deal with all levels. You can't advise families holistically without understanding lifetime mortgages."

Later life planning can raise difficult questions. For example, taking on new borrowing or placing a charge on the property to help children now could limit an older homeowner’s ability to access equity later, especially if an existing lender restricts further borrowing or care costs arise. These decisions, Payne stressed, must be made with long-term flexibility in mind.

He’s also noticed a shift in how older homeowners view their property. "I see a real difference between people in their 50s and people in their 70s or 80s. [The younger people] view [property] as something that they can leverage."

Innovating beyond the traditional model

Payne sees increased interest in limited company structures for buy-to-let as a way for families to manage intergenerational wealth. "You're often seeing people buying a property in a limited company, a special purpose vehicle, and what they're doing is they're putting their children down as minority shareholders within the company."

These setups are complex and come with risks, but they reflect a broader trend toward tailored solutions. "Our industry has gaps, but it’s also full of creative lenders. The trick is knowing who’s doing what."

Despite regulatory constraints, he sees progress. "We've built a strong, stable market since 2008. But we must evolve with the needs of real families."

A broader duty to the future

For Payne, mortgage advice is no longer just about affordability checks or product selection. "Whether it's a first-time buyer or a retiree releasing equity, people want to make informed decisions with their families in mind."

That requires deeper conversations. "You can’t just look at a fact find. You have to ask the harder questions." And think long-term. "We just needed to really expand our field of vision and think about broader issues. But not just broader issues now, broader issues in 10, 15, 20 years' time." Payne also clarified the importance of referring customers to suitably qualified third-party specialists for areas such as tax and inheritance planning.

"These things cannot just have detrimental effects, but actually potentially have really positive effects for the clients. And the way they deal with that money. But we do need to think of the bigger picture, definitely."