If you originate in California you will want to follow this story. The California Senior Legislature has asked for mandatory face to face reverse mortgage counseling. If passed, it would be a substantial change to the way California originators do business in the future.
Here is a link to the story on Reverse Mortgage Daily for more info.
One of the greatest challenges today’s Boomers face is persuading Mom and Dad that their beloved house could benefit from some simple modifications which will make their home safe as well as comfortable…
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Chucking the Extra Closing Costs
Cleaning. Few of us like to do it, yet we seem more willing to spiff up our houses for others than for ourselves. Housekeeper due to arrive? Quick, toss those dirty clothes in the hamper! In-laws invited for dinner? Polish the silver and run the vacuum!
Selling the house? Pull out all the stops. Take an old toothbrush to the grout! Replace the kitchen linoleum! Paint the exterior!
While it certainly makes sense for your reverse mortgage prospects to enjoy a clean, comfortable house while they own it — and take all available measures to make it shine for sale at the right price — too many seniors make the mistake of selling one home, then buying another and applying for a HECM in order to avoid paying a mortgage in their retirement years. They’ve thus paid a completely unnecessary, double set of closing costs!
The smart move, of course, is to obtain the reverse mortgage at the time of the new home purchase. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 created this special HECM for purchase loan, which went live on January 1, 2009. Find all the details here.
So the ideal “spring cleaning” assistance to offer your prospects and clients this season? Reverse mortgage education:
Best of all, this type of spring-cleaning is so much gentler on older backs — not to mention bank accounts. You get the business, they save the additional closing costs. Everybody blooms like a fresh spring garden.
In Part 2, we’ll look at ways to help your clients “age-proof” their homes.
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When people talk about “having a senior moment” it’s decidedly unfunny — especially if you’re the one who went to the basement and now can’t recall why. But the surprisingly good news? Our brains are more fertile and resilient than once believed — in fact, they actually peak in performance sometime in midlife, which most researchers define as anywhere from ages 40 to 68.
In The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, New York Times health and medical science editor Barbara Strauch writes, “Middle age is a far more important time for our brains than anyone ever suspected. This is when paths diverge. What we do when we’re on Planet Middle Age determines what the next stop, Planet Old Age, will look like. At midlife, the brain is ‘on the cusp’. What we do matters, and even what we think matters.”
What does this mean for the “reverse mortgage-age” brain? While your prospects may have more trouble with name retrieval, and their brains may not perform at the same rate of speed they did when in their twenties, the brains’ owners are collectively happier, more adaptable to stress, and actually power up, not down, to solve problems.
This is especially handy in a crisis: remember 57-year-old pilot Chesley Sullenberger III, who made a successful emergency landing of a disabled jet on the Hudson River? Sullenberger was able to call up established patterns and connections built up in his brain over the decades. One reason everyone survived, reported an air safety investigation, was the middle-aged pilot and crew: “a testament to experience.”
We live in “a strangely schizophrenic world in terms of age,” confirms Strauch. “We tell people to get out of the way at 62, yet we’ve had a man running for U.S. president, arguably the toughest job around, at age 72. We send clear messages to women, in particular, that they’re past their prime in dozens of ways by their late fifties, and yet we have had a grandmother, at age 68, running the U.S. House of Representatives.”
So when your reverse mortgage clients and prospects can’t recall a name, or are a bit slower to grasp new information, remember that this is a brain more focused on the positive than its younger counterparts, more integrated in terms of its experience, judgment, and yes, wisdom, and blessed with “cognitive reserve,” explains Strauch.
Cognitive reserve means that the more we feed our brains with education and mental enrichment, from reading to concerts to Chinese lessons (as well as nutrition and exercise), the more we build brainpower throughout the lifespan — even to the extent that a cognitively enriched brain is more protected against dementia, reveals Strauch.
And a robust, age-reversed brain can also exhibit greater interest in a reverse mortgage than one that’s in decline.
As human lifespan climbs steadily towards the century mark, Social Security is only one — and woefully inadequate — means of funding a lengthening retirement period. In fact, we’re in the midst of creating second-stage
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Knowing Your Reverse Mortgage Audience
While we’ll all become “seniors” if we live long enough, not everyone attains the status of elder. The former term refers to someone who has reached a certain chronological age; the latter to one who has evolved into something of a sage.
In his landmark book, The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, social entrepreneur Marc Freedman speaks continually of “generativity,” which he labels a cumbersome word for an essential function: guiding and supporting future generations. (see Pressing the Reset Button/Part 1: Encore, Encore!)
I disagree with Freedman’s distaste for the word generativity (coined by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson in 1950). To me, generativity is a glorious, onomatopoeic expression of the highest calling of our later years: vivifying subsequent generations through creativity, care, and compassion.
For reverse mortgage professionals, understanding this distinction can help you speak in the language of your audience, because those who are ready to enjoy a well deserved retirement, and those who are reinventing themselves to create a post-midlife career or volunteer position, may perceive their home from very different perspectives — yet both groups can provide valid, viable, and valuable reverse mortgage leads.
Perhaps it’s also a question of reclaiming the word “senior”. In school, this term signifies exalted status: upperclassmen nearing graduation, stepping into the next phase of their personal development. Yet in later life, it’s generally been viewed disparagingly.
As we reimagine the aging process to include a “Third Age” of vibrant, mature, post-midlife adults who are reversing the collective image of aging as surely as a reverse mortgage provides income to those who have earned it through the years, “senior” can evolve to mean one who has earned the right to live their later years in whatever manner best suits who they have become, whether that means mentoring a single grandchild — or, like Gene Jones, deciding at 84 to create Opening Minds Through the Arts, an Arizona program that today serves more than 20,000 school children throughout greater Tucson.
Senior and elder Jones typifies the new mature adult, who, as Freedman describes, now has “the opportunity to live a legacy — not just to leave one.”
The new media is an ideal forum for reaching reverse mortgage prospects who have embraced the internet. Here’s how to engage this new demographic.
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Locating Potential Reverse Mortgage Prospects
Sixty is the new sixty: a watershed birthday for the Baby Boom generation, who are reaching this milestone at the rate of one every ten seconds. But this is not your grandfather’s sixty, or even your father’s sixty. People who reach 60 today can expect to live at least another quarter century — ideally in good health, with vision and purpose more sharply focused than at any other time in the life cycle, due to an awareness of one’s mortality.
Management expert Daniel Pink proclaims, “When the cold front of demographics meets the warm front of unrealized dreams, the result will be a thunderstorm of purpose the likes of which the world has never seen.”
Are you poised to connect with these reverse mortgage prospects, who are redefining what it means to grow older in the third millennium?
The first step is locating them. While a sixty-something Boomer might pop into the local senior center for a game of ping-pong, she’s more likely to do so as a change of pace from her demanding marketing consulting business than simply to socialize. Thus, you’d be more likely to target this potential reverse mortgage market by broadening your scope.
Where do the newly minted seniors, who are creating a new life stage known as the Third Age, spend time?
Community service. Think causes: the environment, education, health care, economic change. Civic, cultural, and service organizations are attracting mature adults seeking both paid and non-paid work. These encore careers take place “at the confluence of money, meaning, and social impact,” says Marc Freedman, author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife.
School. Whether they’re training for an entirely different post-midlife career, enhancing existing skills, or studying something they’ve always wanted to learn, lifelong learning is hot, as record numbers of seniors return to school in both traditional settings and online.
Health clubs. Even if they don’t aspire to swim the Florida straits or play college football in their 60s (see Pressing the Reset Button/Part 1), Third Stage adults are focused on staying healthy and fit.
Self-development classes. A yoga or meditation class, journal writing or drum circle, can provide much-needed emotional and spiritual support within a like-minded community.
Once you determine a few groups in your area that serve active older adults, start to network in these environments. Attend gatherings; you may even wish to join a group that appeals to you. Volunteer to give a talk on a topic such as “ways to fund your Third Age vision” — which would include reverse mortgage.
As you begin to build relationships with your potential market in their milieu, you’ll be the obvious choice for group members to consult when they’re considering alternative sources of income for financing future plans.
In Part 3, we’ll explore how Reverse Mortgage professionals can share their knowledge with the new demographic.
What this means for reverse mortgage professionals is a huge opportunity, as we construct a new life map for the largest aging cohort in history
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It’s that time of year again: too much to do, too many parties — and too many promises to start the diet or join a gym after the New Year.
But what if keeping a resolution was as easy — and joyful — as the holidays themselves? We’ve come up with some New Year’s commitments for reverse mortgage professionals that will have you eager to return to the office on January 2nd, ready to start 2012 on healthy, prosperous footing.
#1 Lose wait. No, that isn’t a typo; it’s a reframe of the typical resolution about excess eating. Procrastination keeps the “wait” on, while springing into action guarantees you’ll soon begin to be trim.
Reverse mortgage resolution #1: Make a New Year’s business plan. Revisit what worked in the past, what’s not working, and decide what you must do now in order to delve into rather than shelve your business in 2012.
#2 Get fit. While a toned body is important for well-being, so is a well exercised brain. Continuing education is crucial for your ongoing success; think of it as a health club membership for your mind.
Reverse mortgage resolution #2: Personal enrichment. Beyond what’s required to maintain your license, personal enrichment can include: 1) Delving (there’s that word again) into the intricacies of the reverse mortgage process. Read books, listen to audio programs and watch videos on sales and productivity that inspire and inform. 2) Mental wellness. What can you do this year to cultivate and maintain a positive outlook?
#3 Expand your network. The reverse mortgage industry is known for helping financially strapped seniors keep their homes, but there’s a huge, relatively untapped market of more affluent borrowers who may also be excellent reverse mortgage prospects.
Reverse mortgage resolution #3: Put a plan in place to reach out to certified financial planners (CFPs), financial advisors and other retirement experts to create win-win scenarios for their clientele.
#4 Look out for No. 1. There’s a reason airline emergency instructions exhort passengers traveling with small children, “Put your own oxygen mask on first.” By choosing to take good care of yourself and your business, you’ll have a healthy, balanced perspective to share with your reverse mortgage prospects and clients.
Reverse mortgage resolution #4: Reexamine time management. Are you making the highest and best use of your talents? Are you working as efficiently and effectively as you might be? Do you need to delegate, hire someone to handle paperwork, or move in a different direction with your business?
When you have smart New Year’s resolutions ready to activate January 1st, you can relax and enjoy truly happy holidays!
