A humorous look at success
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A friend’s untimely death in 2014 has always bothered me. As I wrote in this post on grief, Cheryl (“Snake” to her friends) was 68, healthy and fit. In her twenties she led a women’s expedition over the Himalayas; at 40, she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail solo, from Mexico to Canada. So how did a simple day hike in Arizona end her life?
A few weeks ago I got a shocking answer: it was likely heatstroke. I ran into one of her former coworkers, who told me the rescue team had found urine in Snake’s water bottle. That meant she had run out of water, and knew to recycle her urine so she’d have liquid in her system. Obviously, by then she was in crisis.
Did she underestimate the day’s weather? While it was October, it was also Arizona, notorious for blistering temperatures even in the fall. And Snake’s level of fitness may have unwittingly contributed to her downfall: like many active people in their sixties, she did not perceive herself as a “senior” who needed to pay special attention to her health.
Subtle changes can signal grave danger
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “People aged 65 years or older are less likely to sense and respond to changes in temperature.” And they’re not talking about a huge temperature shift, either. A Harvard School of Public Health study found a 1.8-degree Fahrenheit increase could cause heat stress, especially in elders who have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, or heart or lung disease.
In this era of climate change, when we’re experiencing record-breaking heat waves, it’s critical that your reverse mortgage clients, prospects, and other elders in your sphere understand the risks of heatstroke, and the importance of paying attention to how it can sneak up on them, so they don’t become like the proverbial frog in a pot of water on that’s being slowly heated on the stove.
The Mayo Clinic lists the following symptoms of heatstroke:
Take preventive action
I remember helping an older woman on a sweltering summer day a few years ago, as she valiantly disregarded the heat in an effort to get home. These are useful reminders for a senior to post on the refrigerator (or for an LO to email HECM prospects this month).
Go to the Park
Finally, this month might be the perfect time for someone 62+ to purchase a Senior Parks Pass and enjoy our country’s many lakes, mountains, pine trees, and other cooling natural remedies. Do it soon, though: the price of a National Parks Senior Pass increases from $10 to $80 on August 28, 2017.
What are your thoughts? Please leave your input in the Comments section below, and share this post on social media using the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn icons at the top of this page. Thank you!
The chorus of dismay from reverse mortgage professionals lamenting declining reverse mortgage loan numbers began after the Great Recession and continues through today. Consequently, a sense of frustration and futility has set in for some who believe our industry was decimated in the aftermath of the housing crash, product restrictions and the Financial Assessment. But do we have it all wrong? In other words when considering HECM endorsement volumes are we comparing apples to oranges? Do mere annual sales numbers reflect the true state of our industry?
Jim Veale is more than an industry veteran- he’s a numbers guy. Not surprising considering his background as a CPA with a Masters in Business Taxation. While often outspoken on industry issues, Jim has been my personal go-to guy when it comes to the more technical aspects of the HECM market. His recent Op-Ed in Reverse Mortgage Daily does not disappoint.
“Most sales managers, originators, and other participants in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage industry are longing for significant validation that the sales efforts of this decade have had any meaningful results.
Asking questions, not arguing, is how to win over opponents
This week I learned an important lesson while trying a new approach…
We’ve explored death and dying issues a number of times:
Death, Be Not Proud
The Final Frontier: Saying Yes to Death
Facing the Inevitable with Grace and Wit
Preparedness: Shedding New Light on the “D” WordÂ
…but there are always new wrinkles as technology matures along with the population. Startup Aspire Health has garnered significant attention and capital for its “death-predicting algorithm,” which identifies patients at risk of dying within a year. Their intent is to provide palliative care to seniors at home and in senior living communities, in order to maintain quality of life and reduce the cost of care by preventing unnecessary hospitalizations.
That’s an admirable objective. The question is, since the company contracts with health systems and payers, such as Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans, is such a prediction helping to ensure better end-of-life care — or invading patient privacy?
A Noble Goal, with Caveats
While the issue of care vs. privacy is important to address, a “good death” such as what Aspire caregivers aspire to provide, remains rare in Western culture. Our technological advances invite a difficult inquiry: should we keep someone alive simply because we can? There is a propensity to prolong life at all costs, even when it’s clear the person in question is on a downward spiral.
As Harvard Medical School professor, surgeon and author Atul Gawande asserts in his compelling book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End: “The waning days of our lives are given over to treatments that addle our brains and sap our bodies for a sliver’s chance of benefit. They are spent in institutions — nursing homes and intensive care units — where regimented, anonymous routines cut us off from all the things that matter to us in life. Our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying has increased the harm we inflict on people and denied them the basic comforts they most need.”
Gawande’s thesis, like the Aspire Health focus, is spot-on, except… patients do not necessarily conform to medical predictions. There are numerous cases (some of whom have written their own bestsellers) of people at death’s door who experience complete remission and outlive their predicted demise by years, even decades, despite and with their “disease” and/or symptoms.
Comfort, Care, Compassion
Of course, if seniors know when they’re going to die, perhaps it would light a fire under procrastinators in terms of life planning. And then, opting out of the prevailing medical model, they could “go gentle into that good night” in the fullness of time.
Positive change is on the near horizon. Hospitals provide “Comfort Kits” for sick children; people at other end of life deserve the same consideration. The National Institute on Aging’s Providing Comfort at the End of Life is a useful guide you may wish to share with the families of reverse mortgage clients and other seniors in your sphere who want to give someone approaching the end a peaceful, compassionate death.
The site covers a range of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual issues, as well as practical matters such as questions to ask the person’s physician, and how to support the primary caregiver. There is also a list of links to hospice and palliative care, pain medicine, music therapy, and even a site, What Matters Now, to help the families of those facing serious illness create their own blog to keep loved ones informed.
Wishing Can Make It So
If, like many people, the HECM senior or his/her family members are reluctant to broach the unmentionable, there’s an innovative way to get the ball rolling: Go Wish, a card game (in multiple languages) that helps people begin the end-of-life discussion. It’s a good companion tool to The Conversation.
Dr. Christopher Kerr, Chief Medical Officer at The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in Buffalo, New York, gave this compelling TEDx Talk. He observes that while those in the process of dying might have depleted bodies, their spiritual lives have become rich. Emotionally, a deep peace envelops people as they approach the end.
Another palliative care physician thinks “death ed” ought to start in high school, so she developed and taught such a class this year, using Go Wish to help students jump into the subject matter. Introducing death discussions early on, when the topic is theoretical rather than imminent, may help reduce someone’s fear and resistance to having such crucial conversations later in life.
What are your thoughts? Please leave your input in the Comments section below, and share this post on social media using the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn icons at the top of this page. Thank you!
In this week’s edition: HUD Secretary Ben Carson supports reverse mortgage program while speaking for the need for reform. The New York Stock Exchange puts Walter Investment on notice. US Postal Service nabs reverse mortgage scammer in a sting operation. The best & worst uses of a reverse mortgage.
While Dr. Ben Carson is settling into his new job as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he did take the time to note both his support and the need for reforms of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Speaking before the Leading Age Florida convention, Carson stated “More and more of our citizens are over 65 years of age … about 15 percent, nationally. And, as our nation ages, we must become wiser, smarter, while expanding choices for seniors.”
A successful con requires confidence on the part of the scammer. This time Kemal Barnes had the tables turned on him after scamming over $120,000 a 79-year old Texas woman according to the Boston Globe. Barnes began his con game while living in his native Jamaica and continued while living in Massachusetts. The victim’s son notified authorities in 2015 after
Trust is built. Here’s how to keep itTrust. How do you earn it and what telltale signs do your potential borrowers look for? Too often HECM professionals can fixate on education and persuasion forgetting the fact that getting a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage may be the largest financial transaction their prospective borrower will make.
1. A piece in the puzzle. Before recommending a reverse mortgage to the homeowner, you must first uncover their unique situation. What are their concerns? Do you know how long their savings will last? Is there a bona fide need? Focus in solving their challenges, not selling a product.
2. Keep your promises. If you break your promise to arrive on time, you have already eroded the homeowners trust. Arrive on time, answer your…
Download the video transcript here.
Canada has reached a census milestone: for the first time in history, seniors outnumber the nation’s children. Even more startling: within three years, this will be true worldwide. It’s already old news in Japan, where people 65+ plus comprise a fourth of the population and are on track to reach 40 percent, due to the longest global life expectancy, and birth dearth.
But far from bemoaning the silver tsunami, Japan is innovating in response, from comprehensive long-term care insurance to robotics. As this recent Reverse Focus video explains, combining LTC insurance with a HELOC can make a great deal of sense. Caregiving will become a real, possibly urgent need if we live long enough, and we will need the money to pay for it.
However, given the shortage of human caregivers where they are most needed, technology can help bridge the gap in myriad creative ways. From animatronic pets to compassionate robots, startups are stepping up to support the rising tide of older adults — especially those who are lonely.
Forecast: Cloudy and ClearÂ
Developed in Belgium and now available stateside, Cubigo is a cloud-based, interactive platform that helps elders living at home remain independent and socially connected.
Cubigo connects seniors, caregivers, family and businesses in an easy-to-use, modular interface that allows each user to choose among a broad set of functions. A senior can make video calls, order meals or transportation, track and share medical data, create medication reminders, and much more — all in one place. All someone needs is a digital device (laptop, tablet, smartphone) and an Internet connection. It’s a simple, secure, self-directed way for an elder who needs minimal assistance to manage at home without a caregiver.
Driven to Serve Seniors
Once a senior has Cubigo, they’ll need a transportation service to order — and there is one “made to order” for older adults: GoGoGrandparent. GoGoGrandparent monitors and customizes on-demand transportation such as Uber for older audiences and their families.
In addition to custom pick ups and automatic scheduling for recurring rides (e.g., medical appointments), GoGoGrandparent provides by-the-minute text updates to designated family members so they know precisely where Mom or Grandma is en route. Service is available throughout the US and Canada — a potential client can check location availability by plugging their zip code into the site’s search page — and GoGo adds a $.19/minute concierge fee to the Uber fare.
Bot Can They Play Bridge?
Robots already play a valued role in our lives for automated housekeeping tasks. But they’re light-years away from demonstrating sentience, like Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation — right?
Perhaps not. The legions of aging adults also means a steep rise in dementia, and a care robot can be an unobtrusive companion that also reminds a senior to drink enough water, take medication on time, and eat three meals a day. In the UK, the Chiron Project is developing a set of “modular robotic systems” designed for home care with dignity — not quite a Data-like android, but still a bot that “gets it”.
And while Data often despaired of his ability to master human emotion, the ElliQ is being designed to do just that: provide emotional support to seniors who want to age in place. After choosing to apply for a reverse mortgage, this desktop bot could be the most valuable later life decision an elder makes. The active aging companion keeps elders actively engaged. And yes, ElliQ can play bridge!
The Perfect Pet: No Feeding, No Clean-up
Several years ago we featured virtual “pet companion” GeriJoy, a remote caregiving service that provides seniors who have mild dementia with an adorable animal avatar who will engage with the elder on demand, via tablet or laptop.
The caregivers providing companionship and oversight via GeriJoy are highly trained, compassionate, and available to monitor an older loved one 24/7. Unlike actual pets, they speak English, and can alert the emergency contact person in the event of a change in behavior or a fall.
But sometimes, only the real deal will do. Joy For All Companion Pets has this handled, with animatronic pets that deliver tactile and auditory stimulation to seniors with dementia.
Joy For All dispenses with leash and litter box; their pets simply dispense love. These animatronic animals provide comfort, a calming influence, and happiness, often evoking memories of beloved living pets from the past. They’re amazingly lifelike, especially the cat, which purrs and meows just like an actual feline — but won’t jump off a senior’s lap (and probably doesn’t shed, either).
What are your thoughts? Please leave your input in the Comments section below, and share this post on social media using the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn icons at the top of this page. Thank you!
Like the mythical phoenix, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage industry rose from the ashes of the housing crash and economic crisis of 2008, followed by several reincarnations as the reverse mortgage program was tweaked, pruned, and curbed the pool of eligible borrowers. Yet, despite the undeniable lack of retirement preparedness among retiring homeowners, reverse mortgage acceptance and market volumes remain relatively stagnant. Notwithstanding these hurdles, several industry participants and financial pundits believe the HECM is poised for growth.
Much like Sisyphus who eternally pushes a rock up a hill- only to have it continually come back down, our industry pushed forward past the housing crash as home values rebounded, only to be pushed back by a never-ending onslaught of new rules and product restrictions. Do we resign ourselves to unexceptional growth in the coming years, or explore more useful ways to capture the imagination and hearts of older homeowners?
Our industry has been steadily and quietly rebuilding as lenders have not only adapted to the new landscape of HECM lending and regulations, but also their marketing approach. As we stand midway between the past economic crash and future opportunity we should invest our time wisely to prepare. Chief among those preparations is how we approach eligible homeowners. As counterintuitive as the reverse mortgage is, we must avoid using mortgage terminology that is not analogous to traditional mortgages such as…
