Those of us who are concerned with the development of new products and services designed to meet the needs of later life borrowers know all too well that advice is a critically important part of the overall solution. But while advice is undoubtedly the answer, do we fully understand and appreciate the evolving complexity of the questions we are being asked by today's consumers?

And, if not, is there a danger of our industry taking a backward step in terms of customer outcomes as we fail to spot the knotty problems in a forest full of advice options?

As the CEO of a lifetime mortgage lender, I know how easy it can be to become focused on the success of our market and forget to step back and see the bigger picture. We know from research we have carried out that the equity release market is just a small part of a much bigger later life lending market, which is currently sized at around £86 billion and set to grow to almost £150 billion before the end of the next decade.

Within this later life lending sphere, there is new product innovation going on all the time as lenders and service providers jockey to meet growing consumer demand for borrowing. But what are the advice pathways open to consumers and will they always get the ?right? advice for their needs?

Take Retirement Interest-Only mortgages (RIOs), for example. This is a great example of later life lending innovation but also underlines my point. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation relating to RIOs does not require an adviser to be qualified in terms of equity release. There is therefore a danger of the development and proliferation of a 'silo? approach to advice, where advisers with different product knowledge and qualifications are offering older borrowers one set of potential options but not the full palette they could have access to.

Without that broader product knowledge and expertise, will some advisers fall short in terms of their understanding of the complex needs of older borrowers as they transition through retirement over two or three decades? Will the solutions they present to their customers deliver the optimal balance of features, benefits, price and flexibility?

This market has thousands of expert and qualified advisers, many of whom have wider specialisms in areas such as will writing, lasting power of attorney, and dealing with vulnerable clients. I am not suggesting for one moment that we have an ?advice problem? with endemic poor practices and sub-optimal advice recommendations - what I am concerned about is that the legislative, regulatory and qualification frameworks are such that we are in danger of reinforcing and entrenching the silo problem I highlighted above.

Until we fully understand and address the questions we face as an industry posed to us by today's consumers, we won't create the right advice answers.

Dave Harris will be speaking at the forthcoming Later Life Lending Conference taking place in London on Thursday, 11 July. View further details and book your ticket here.