By Charlotte Beugge

A mystery shopping exercise by consumer group Which? has uncovered concerns about the quality of advice being offered on equity release.

Equity release is a way of people aged 55 and over getting at some of the cash built up in their homes without having to move.

The most common way of doing this is with a lifetime mortgage. The mortgage isn't repaid during the homeowner's lifetime but when they die, their home is sold and the loan, plus rolled up interest, is repaid.

But the Which? mystery selling exercise found that nearly a quarter of qualified advisers failed a benchmark test. It found only two cases of "excellent" advice out of the 22 advisers tested and four failed completely.

Some areas of concern included advisers failing to say how much their fees were, not discussing alternatives to equity release and not explaining exit penalties.

Which? says that its research shows that "standards still need to be driven up" and the Financial Services Authority said it would take into account the Which? results.

Figures from Safe Home Income Plans, which includes most of the largest equity release providers, showed that in the final three months of last year nearly £216 million was advanced through equity release schemes - up 15% on the comparable period in 2010.