Why we say YES when other lenders say no: an underwriter's perspective

I've been underwriting for over 20 years. In that time, I've seen most versions of "computer says no." What we've built at LiveMore over the past six years is, I think, genuinely different. Not because we take more risk, but because we take the time to understand it properly before making a decision.

What makes underwriting at LiveMore different?

The honest answer is culture - at a lot of specialist lenders, underwriting becomes a filter. It's there to say no quickly, because no is easy and yes takes work. LiveMore was built the opposite way round, our starting point on every case is "how can we do this," not "why can't we."

That means our underwriters aren't just processing applications against a rigid checklist. They're empowered to operate in the grey areas of our policy where a case genuinely warrants it, and they're mandated to make that decision themselves. There's no committee sitting behind them second-guessing every file. When a broker speaks to one of our underwriters, they're speaking to the person who can actually say yes.

A real example: when income doesn't fit a standard payslip

A broker recently brought us a large loan case that had been declined elsewhere. The issue wasn't affordability, it was how the client was drawing income from their own business. There were inconsistencies in the way that money was being released, and other lenders weren't willing to get into the detail to understand why.

The broker booked a call with our Hero Hotline, genuinely as something of a last resort. We went through the full business structure and company accounts together on the call. It's a technical conversation, there's no getting around that, but by the end of it we had a way forward we could put in writing there and then. No back and forth over email, no waiting a week for a decision that could have been made on the spot.

That's the kind of outcome we want every Hero Hotline call to deliver.

Why do other lenders decline cases like this?

In my experience, it usually comes down to one of two things:

1. Skill set. Not every underwriting team has people with genuine specialist lending experience, so they default to black and white rules rather than assessing a case on its own merits.
2. Structure. Many lenders hide underwriting decisions behind committees or approval chains. That slows everything down and often pushes teams towards the safer, easier answer, which is no.

At LiveMore, our underwriters have specialist lending backgrounds and the mandate to make decisions themselves. That combination is what lets us work in the detail rather than around it.

Later life lending isn't just about age

There's a common misconception that LiveMore only lends to people at or approaching retirement. In practice, a large proportion of the complex, higher value cases we see involve people in their 40s who draw income from their own business in a non-traditional way. That's not unusual, and it's not a problem for us - it's exactly the kind of case our underwriting approach is built for.

The common thread isn't age, it's complexity and a willingness to actually understand it rather than decline on sight.

What should brokers do with a complex case?

Book a call with our underwriting team before you write the case off, that's genuinely my advice.

The feedback we've had since launching the Hero Hotline has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's become one of the things I'm proudest of at LiveMore. Come to us with the detail. Challenge us with it - we're not afraid of complexity, and we'd rather work through it with you on a call than have you assume the answer is no before you've asked the question.