The Intermediary – July 2025 - Flipbook - Page 26
The Interview.
Pure Retirement
the lender’s approach to fringe cases and the
changing face of later life lending.
Advice to underwriting
Jessica Bird speaks with Gavin
Hancock, head of initial loan
originations at Pure Retirement,
about nuanced underwriting and the
rise of fringe cases in later life lending
S
ince the age of 16, Gavin
Hancock’s career has spanned
many facets of financial services.
From starting out in mortgages
at Halifax Building Society,
to intermediary sales, arrears
counselling and acting as an
adviser – both tied and whole
of market – eventually he came to tackle the
underwriting side of the business, joining Pure
Retirement eight years ago.
He says: “The world of mortgages intrigued
me from a sales perspective, but then sending
cases on, the underwriting bit was something
of a mystery. I wanted to see what happened on
the other side of the fence.”
Hancock became head of initial loan
originations at Pure Retirement early this year,
and The Intermediary sat down with him to
discuss how his experience is helping him shape
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The Intermediary | July 2025
Hancock was driven to this side of the market
by an interest in understanding “the thought
process behind why lending occurs.” He
started at Pure Retirement as an underwriter,
and progressed through various roles to lead
originations. His experience on the other side of
transactions has blended into his work on the
underwriting side.
He explains: “What’s invaluable to me is
that seeing the sales side has given me a real
appreciation of the journey that the customer
has gone through, and the broker as well.
“There’s a lot of time invested, and it’s a
particularly emotive transaction – particularly
equity release. This is not just ‘I’ve seen a
house and want to purchase it’, it’s often for
meaningful reasons.”
For Hancock, it is important that an
underwriting team is also able to understand
that journey, value the time and effort
invested by both broker and client, “get to
fully understand the proposition” and ensure
that they “see beyond a number” when
assessing cases.
This is, of course, particularly important
when it comes to the rising number of ‘fringe’
cases that Pure Retirement is seeing in today’s
market. For the lender, this definition helps to
mark out those cases with an atypical property
type or proposition, which might seem outside
the lending prospects for many.
For Hancock, it’s about working to find
flexible solutions to cases that might otherwise
have been turned away.
He says: “Our underwriting promise is to
assess each case on an individual basis, review
all the information, and look beyond that and
ask what we might be able to do to help the
client. If this particular plan isn’t suitable, is
there something else that would be, or can we
build a business case? Are there some aspects
that are teetering in terms of criteria, and just
need a bit more understanding?”
Risky business
In order to provide support for fringe cases
while also maintaining a strong lending
