Recommended Reading for Reverse Mortgage Clientele

We’ve covered retirement websites and family resources, but not books to help elders prepare for later life living. Here are thirteen suggestions, broken out by category, for timely and timeless reads reverse mortgage professionals may want to keep on their office shelves, or have as a handy list, to share with clients and prospects.

Note: While we’ve included Amazon links for easy reference, most of these titles will be available through local libraries, or via the nationwide interlibrary loan (ILL) system, so there’s no need for seniors to purchase a book unless they wish to own a copy.

Italicized passages are direct quotes from the books.

reverse mortgage newsPositive Aging

The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife by Mark Freedman

In his landmark book, social entrepreneur Freedman, who coined the term “encore careers” to describe jobs people embrace in the second half, says our extended life span has introduced a new life stage.

The end of middle age is no longer, for most people, attached to the beginning of either retirement or old age. We’re in the early stages of a great migration…across time and the life course, as tens of millions (8,000 Baby Boomers turn 60 every day) reach the spot where middle age used to end and old age once began.

The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life by Gene Cohen

The unique combination of age, experience, and creativity can produce exciting inner growth and infinite potential for everyone, says Gene Cohen, MD, PhD. Weaving research with inspiring life stories and fresh insights, Dr. Cohen takes the reader into previously uncharted territory of human potential in the second half of life.

Creativity is a powerful inner resource that is not only possible in later life, but common.

From Age-ing to Sage-ing by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Growing older does not automatically confer wisdom, but growing wiser is always possible, says Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi. To put an “s” in front of age, someone must consciously choose the path of “spiritual eldering.”

By activating their dormant powers of intuition, they become seers who feed wisdom back into society and guide the long-term reclamation project of healing our planet.

Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

At 61, Sarton, already an accomplished poet and author, published this diary-like memoir that pulls no punches about life, living alone, romantic love, and the creative process. It’s the kind of book one can read and re-read at various life stages (I first read it in my twenties.)

Friends, even passionate love, are not my real life, unless there is time alone in which to explore what is happening or what has happened. I hope to break through into the rough, rocky depths, to the matrix itself. There is violence there and anger never resolved. My need to be alone is balanced against my fear of what will happen when suddenly I enter the huge empty silence if I cannot find support there.

The Measure of My Days by Florida Scott-Maxwell

I read Scott-Maxwell’s classic at age 24, when her perspective was sixty years in my future. A playwright and Jungian analyst, she discusses the unique predicament of one’s later years: when the body may rebel but the mind is still vital and passionate.

You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done … you are fierce with reality.

Ripening Time: Inside Stories for Aging with Grace by Sherry Ruth Anderson

How do we become elders in the truest sense, and not simply old? Anderson, who wrote this book in her 70s, says it’s an inner sense of relaxation, a letting go of thinking we’re the center of the universe, a generativity towards those who will follow.

We’re a new fruit. To reach the true harvest of our lives, the point is not to know the map but to be the map. The point is to mature not for ourselves alone but for all our kin, all those who have gone before us and the children of the future.

Health/Nutrition/Fitness

Loving Yourself to Great Health by Louise Hay

At 89, best-selling author and personal growth pioneer Louise Hay is in exceptional good health — and decades ago, she conquered cancer. In this book that transcends fads, diets and dogma, Hay, together with two health and nutrition professionals, shows us how to take our health, moods, and energy to the next level, whatever our age.

Safe 4 Retirement by Jack Tatar

When Tatar lost both his parents within six months, it set him on a course to discover what really makes retirement work. In this book, he covers the four pillars he believes make for a successful retirement: financial preparedness, health/wellness, mental attitude, and social involvement. A friendly, informal read packed with research and experience you can use today to enrich your retirement tomorrows.

Preparing for Death

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Old age is not a disease, though modern medicine has been treating it as one, argues Harvard Medical school professor and surgeon Atul Gawande in his compelling bestseller. Worth reading at any age and life stage.

“We’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think [it] is to ensure health and survival. But really it…is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive. Those reasons matter not just at the end of life, or when debility comes, but all along the way.”

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

In this graphic memoir, New Yorker magazine cartoonist Roz Chast tackles her parents’ decline into old age and death with a humor and humility that makes the book an astonishing read, filled with more beauty than pathos, poignant yet positive. Her signature drawings balance the serious subject matter.

My mother belonged to a Poetry Club. She also played classical piano in a group that, to all the members’ amusement, was called Classical Pianists in Retirement: CPR.

Deathing: An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life by Anya Foos-Graber

This is a stunning work, especially comforting for people who may have no belief system or structure for facing life’s final ascent. It is an actual instruction manual for how to prepare for dying, and can be used to support a loved one who is close to transitioning, as well as for preparing for one’s own passage.

Ordinarily when people die, they are unprepared and uninformed; probably they are bewildered or frightened, especially if they are alone. Deathing offers a way to free up dying people so they can utilize the highest potential of the transition called death and experience it as a peak moment, a culmination of life. This deliberate, practical, yet spontaneous approach…can enable people to attain higher levels of consciousness.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Dubbed “the bestselling memoir of all time,” Albom’s touching tribute takes us though fourteen Tuesday visits with his beloved former professor, who is dying from ALS — and living more fully in his last year than many people do in a lifetime.

Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a rare but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back. Sometimes it is only in your head. Sometimes it is right alongside their beds.

The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week, in his home, by a window in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink flowers. The class met on Tuesdays. No books were required. The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience.

Fiction

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Allan Karlsson has lived an event-filled life, supping with heads of state on several continents. But, though he’s still healthy and mentally sound, he ends up in a nursing home that cramps his style. Thus on the morning of his 100th birthday, Allan spontaneously decides to escape by climbing out his bedroom window.

It’s no accident that “escape” is the root of escapade, because the hijinks that ensue are a laugh-out-loud testament to what friendship and a sense of adventure can create, at any age. The book is also historically well researched, and Allan’s insertion into actual world events may be quite amusing to those who lived through them the first time.

Have a favorite title that’s not on this list? Please share it in the Comments section, below!

HECM Changes: The Consequences of Interest Rate Caps

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% Rate Caps to Increase Costs: Secondary Market Concerns

rate-trapIf there’s one word that describes the recently announced proposed rule changes it’s digestion. As many professionals comb over the finer details, one can begin to see a clearer indication of the true impacts on our industry and most importantly, reverse mortgage borrowers.

First a correction. In the last episode, I regret to say that I incorrectly described the continuing payments of monthly insurance premiums as now being required to be sent to FHA monthly. That actually has been an established process for HECM lenders and servicers. What is different is that ongoing monthly premiums must be submitted even after the HECM has reached assignment status with HUD. Premium payments under the proposed rule must continue until the loan ultimately terminates.

Next, lower interest rate caps. There are two primary factors that will reduce the amount of available money to borrowers: home values and interest rates. However, another consequence of lowering adjustable rate HECM interest rate caps is the increase of interest rate margins. Lowering the interest rates caps on the adjustable rate loan would appear to benefit the consumer at first glance, but look again. While the lifetime cap will reduce volatility in FHA’s…

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

An Action-Oriented Achiever

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4 Tips to Move from Desire to Action

reverse mortgage newsJust what are the keys to overcoming the obstacles that block us from getting things done? After all isn’t that what we wrestle with the moment we get out of bed? Ideas, dreams, and goals are good but the truth is actions speak louder than words. What do your actions reveal? Do your actions reflect your personal and professional goals?

The common roadblocks that prevent us from taking action are a lack of motivation, low self-confidence, perfectionism, procrastination, and confusion. So where does the rubber meet the road in being an action-oriented individual? Here are a few tips.

1. Know the difference between being busy versus productive. Sure, someone moving quickly, typing on their computer and shuffling papers may appear to be productive, but are they? Motion is important but it must be…

 

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

The Final Frontier

The Final Frontier: Saying Yes to Death


When we’ve discussed the “D” word before, it’s often been in the context of humor. But for one demographic, death, while potentially far from where they are in their life trajectory, is very much top of mind.

We’re speaking, of course, of the Millennials, whose digital innovation touches upon every aspect of life — including death. Last month we took a look at an app that helps patients reflect on their medical wishes and facilitate family discussions. Now some innovative young entrepreneurs are taking it a step beyond, creating death apps that guide people in planning their own passage, where even the memorial service is likely to be worthy of Instagram uploads.

reverse mortgage newsCurating one’s death, no matter how far in the future, also seems like a natural extension of digital estate planning: if you’re going to make sure your Facebook and Twitter accounts are in good hands once you shuffle off this mortal coil, it’s prudent to do the same with your own passage. And in keeping with the potential humor inherent in life (and death) discussions, death apps put a positive spin on the formerly sarcastic expression, “It’s your funeral.”

Millennials point up the disquieting truth that it’s never too soon to think about one’s own death. This may actually be easier to do when it’s a vague vision in some distant decade — though even those in midlife (ahem) may have difficulty deciding to actually complete that Advance Directive sitting on their computer desktop for a few years now.

One mortician describes how, in the Middle Ages, people prepared to face death via a religious vehicle known as the Ars Moriendi, or Art of Dying: an instruction manual that taught Christians how to die a good death. She laments that there is no such manual available to us today.

How to Prepare for Your Own Death

That’s not quite accurate. A few years ago, a hospice volunteer introduced me to an exceptional resource that has kept a fairly low profile: Deathing: An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life. Published in 1989 by Anya Foos-Graber, Deathing is the real deal on conscious departure. Her definitive guide spells out clearly how each person can prepare for an informed death.

The first part of the book presents two teaching stories, illustrating first an “unconscious” death (how most of us in Western culture experience dying) followed by a conscious one.

Part 2 is a step-by-step manual, with complete instructions and simple exercises, such as breathing, visualization, and how to direct your attention during the death transition.

We have a lot of help entering the world, with attendants such as doctors, nurses, midwives, spouses and friends ready to welcome us and tend to the birthing mother. But in Western culture there is no corresponding death ritual to support us in exiting the body we’ve inhabited.

This is a stunning work, especially comforting for people who may have no belief system or structure for facing life’s final ascent. It may be a useful tool to refer to certain reverse mortgage clients or their families, depending on your relationship with them.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

More HECM Changes Coming…

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More Changes for HECM on Horizon from HUD

looking-aheadIf you think the dust has finally settled in the wake of numerous HECM changes, think again. HUD announced their intention to codify recent program changes while also adding new consumer protections to the federally-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program.

Sit down, take a few Tylenol along with a pot of coffee and settle in to read HUD’s proposed rule changes. Perhaps a better approach is a brief summary of the proposed rule changes presented here in the next few minutes.

First, HUD reiterates their first-year distribution limit as 60% of the principal limit or the total mandatory obligations plus 10%. What’s new is the forward commitment that the initial 12-month distribution cap is never to be less than 50% of the principal limit. Keep in mind that principal limit factors can be changed outside of the rule making process via a mortgagee letter as market conditions warrant.

Second: H4P changes. HECM for purchase borrowers must complete HECM counseling prior to signing a sales contract or…

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

5 Ways to Adapt to Change

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5 Tips for Reverse Mortgage Professionals

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If there is one constant denominator in reverse mortgage lending it is change. We are not alone as technology, politics and business practices are ever evolving. What is challenging is not so much change itslef but the pace at which we mustadapt.

Here are five tips to help us adapt to change. Timely considering HUD’s recent announcement this week of additional consumer protections to be enacted in the near future.

1. Acceptance. The faster we get used to the notion that everything is in a state of flux the easier we will adapt to the continual evolution of our industry. Consider for a moment how much you have changed in the last 15 years or even childhood friends. Change, while often unwelcome, is a natural part of our personal and professional development.

2. Improvement. If you’re a fitness fanatic then you already know that if you keep doing the same exercise…

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

Change & Be Happy

Be Happy with Change


Older Americans Month takes place in May: a season of bright beginnings when the country is in bloom. It’s a terrific time for elders to emerge from hibernation into imagine-nation, and step up to being the person they most want to be (and who their dog already knows they are).

Last week we talked about some ways to ease the transition into retirement. The greatest asset to such life transitions is a sense of ease with change. One loan officer with a glass full (not half full) mindset offers, “I happened to see the Dr. Oz TV show with William Shatner (of Star Trek fame) as one of his guests. I was impressed with the positive attitude Shatner exudes and how it has affected his personal happiness and longevity.”

Indeed. After his long acting career, Shatner reinvented himself in his sixties as a musician, author, director, and celebrity pitchman. He also breeds and shows horses, and is active in a number of charities. He is 85 years old.

While this may be a more ambitious retirement than many would choose, it points up the possibilities. And it wasn’t a straight ascent: even after fame, Shatner suffered a reversal of fortune, at one point living in his truck bed camper.
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Happiness Is A Choice

Optimism. It’s something we must choose on a daily basis. Perhaps the simplest way might be to accept change as a fact of life, and embrace Bobby McFerrin’s musical advice: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, or the more recent Happy by Pharrell Williams, which boasts close to a billion YouTube views. Clearly, everybody wants happiness, regardless of age.

A LinkedIn member recently shared this brief, touching story of an 86-year-old gentleman who creates his happiness by bolding going where few have gone before, asking total strangers to have a cup of coffee. Talk about a zest for life!

This is another strategy to share with your reverse mortgage clients, and other seasoned adults you know: step out of your comfort zone and expand into something new. Most of us wouldn’t consider walking up to someone we don’t know and asking for their time, but it has created meaningful experiences for the man described above.

Muhammad Ali is purported to have said: “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” It behooves each of us to be open to/willing to change.

Hopefully, we learn from our life experience as we age and gain some wisdom, which we can then use to develop different goals and life paths later on. Change is life’s only constant; embracing it leads to a life-long love affair.

Loan Payout Manipulation

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NRMLA Issues Ethics Advisory on Planned Prepayment HECM Loans

reverse mortgage newsIt’s not often discussed or quite frankly on the radar of most reverse mortgage professionals, structuring HECM loans for higher initial payouts followed by an immediate pay-down.

It’s a tricky strategy that is unfortunately employed by a few reverse mortgage lenders or brokers, strategic prepayments following a large initial loan payout at closing. In its most egregious form, it works like this: Broker A is working with the Smiths who have a very low mortgage payoff or mandatory obligations. Approaching the loan closing date said broker encourages the Smiths to take a lump sum distribution up to the 60% first-year distribution limit keeping their upfront FHA insurance premium at one-half of a percent telling them they can repay the excess withdrawals in the first month to avoid the interest charges. Consequently, the broker benefits with a higher UPB or Unpaid Principal Balance which may increase his loan pricing or commission while the borrower is convinced they are unaffected. Isn’t this a win-win scenario?

If there’s one thing history has taught us it is that ethical guidelines are born from questionable business practices…

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.

Strip it Down

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Four Ways to Simplify & Take Control of Your Life

reverse mortgage newsSpeaking from personal experience there comes a time in your life when you actually want less than more. Do you ever look around your office or home and wish you could rent a large dumpster and fill it?

If there’s one word that describes most American’s lives it’s clutter. A mishmash of paper, trinkets, emails, constant notifications, emails, and social media clutter our life and consciousness. It’s no wonder that many are more stressed each year suffering the physical consequences of the unrelenting strain. I believe that each of us have the power to create the environment we want to live in. Too often many of us give in to letting our stuff control us. How do we identify the ‘stuff’ that clutters our lives and simplify? Here are a few tips.

1- Analyze where you spend your time. Purchase a small notepad and log down how you spend your day. Log your time as soon as you wake and be sure to include mundane activities. When you wake how much time do you spend checking emails, social media or watching TV. Could that time be better spent?

2- Ditch the physical clutter. Look at the things you haven’t even touched or used in the last six months. Chances are they are…

 

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Looking for more reverse mortgage news, commentary, and technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today.