Solicitors who advise their clients about equity release schemes - which allow people to borrow money against the value of their homes - should take special care to avoid negligence claims, a leading risk lawyer said this week.

Home income plans are mostly aimed at pensioners wanting to release cash tied up in their homes without selling up, and led to more than 2,000 unsuccessful claims against solicitors in Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society [1998] 1 WLR 896.

Frank Maher, a partner at Liverpool-based firm Legal Risk, who acted for the defendants in the West Bromwich case while he was a partner with Weightman Vizards - said solicitors face more risk now than they did then.

He said that although many of the claims against solicitors in the 1990s failed, higher standards of care could be imposed on solicitors now as a result of subsequent case law.

Solicitors offering such products could be expected to conduct face-to-face meeting with clients, he said.

In addition, consumer watchdog Which? has recently issued a report on such schemes, describing them as expensive and inflexible.

Mr Maher said: 'Solicitors acting for elderly clients on equity release schemes should think carefully about their risk management, or sometimes their beneficiaries can develop 20/20 hindsight when they see the downside of the schemes in a few years' time.'

Jeremy Fleming