The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s pending new reverse mortgage counseling protocol was discussed at the National Housing Counseling Association’s first conference held in Arlington, Va., yesterday, a board director said.
NHCA Director Jason Levy, CEO of reverse mortgage lender Guardian First Funding Group in New York, said today that the one-day conference provided a forum for counseling agencies to communicate with lenders about how anticipated rules will impact the reverse mortgage industry.
Topics included HUD’s effort to prevent lenders from steering borrowers to specific counseling agencies. The draft document would require lenders and correspondents to offer seniors five different counseling agency options, and the borrower would have to schedule the required counseling session.
“We are no longer allowed to order the counseling,” Levy said. Lenders instead will have to “wait back and see what will happen.”
Dwindling funding resources for counseling were also discussed, he said.
It is still uncertain when HUD will release the long-awaited new protocol. A HUD representative who was scheduled to attend called in sick, Levy said.
The NHCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting HUD-approved counseling agencies. Its principal goal is to improve reverse mortgage counseling programs nationwide. The 12-member board of directors includes executives from Merrill Lynch, national counseling agencies, and consumer and aging organizations.
