Children who become caregivers for their aging parents often find themselves facing behavioral changes. Sometimes seemingly overnight, or perhaps occurring more gradually, their once calm, loving parent becomes blunt, even mean — or possibly quite fearful.
Continue readingTalking HECMs with the Uninitiated
It’s a new year, but old HECM myths abound — even among those who ought to know better. To correct such misinformation, here’s a basic refresher you can use during presentations, both with professionals in related fields (e.g., financial advisors and elder law attorneys), and with prospects and clients.
Continue readingA Bright Future
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Professor Sees Reverse Mortgages as a Cornerstone for Retirement Planning
It’s no small endorsement. Well known Columbia Business school professor Christopher Mayer not only sees a bright future for reverse mortgages but he’s going into business himself. Mayer is tapering his teaching responsibilities at Columbia to serve as CEO of the startup reverse mortgage lender Longbirdge Financial….
For more reverse mortgage tools, technology & training visit www.ReverseFocus.com
Download video transcript here
Ho-Hum January? Smart Marketing For All Seasons
With a little ingenuity, you and your reverse mortgage prospects and clients can find ways to celebrate all year long. For instance: did you know January is National Oatmeal Month, as well as National Soup Month and Hot Tea Month? What a perfect lead-in for a lunch ‘n’ learn, where (depending on the venue and menu available) seniors could be served tea and soup along with a heaping helping of housing wisdom.
Continue reading2013: A Turbulent Year
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A Look Back at a Bumpy 2013
For reverse mortgage professionals 2013 will go down as a bumpy ride. And what a ride it has been. In the last ten years I cannot recall a year with more substantial and industry-changing developments. 2013 was rang in with HUD’s announcement they would be ceasing the problematic Standard Fixed Rate Product. While it helped many borrowers who needed maximum proceeds to payoff existing mortgage balances it also added to FHA’s risk of future insurance payouts from its Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) fund. One look at the amortization chart of a fixed rate loan with the full upfront distribution and it didn’t take a mathematician to figure out substantial risk was baked into the fixed rate loan. Unfortunately generous payouts in loan compensation unduly influenced some originators where a more flexible adjustable rate loan may have been more fitting.
While politicians may be adept at spending money they are also politically astute knowing a faltering FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program required some painful changes lest they incur the wrath of watchful policymakers and voters. HUD asked for and received the authority needed to make program changes witht the passage of the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act which led to product consolidation. After eliminating the standard fixed rate in April HUD moved to eliminate the standard adjustable and both saver loan programs altogether in favor of one two-tiered product.
Download video transcript here
For more reverse mortgage news, technology & training visit www.ReverseFocus.com
Protecting Seniors From Financial Fraud
With the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, it’s especially important to be aware of schemes to defraud seniors of their savings, which are sometimes cloaked as medical assistance. Scam artists have become more creative: seniors may receive mailings for “medical treatments” that appear to be endorsed by actual physicians.
Continue readingAre HECM Changes Paying Off?
HUD states the turnaround of the HECM portion of the fund is attributable to three primary factors: the economy, mandatory cash appropriation from the treasury and a transfer from the forward loan portfolio.
Continue readingWhat Have We Learned from 2013?
Beyond the top reverse mortgage stories for this year there are some greater lessons to be gleaned from what is sure to be noted as a watershed year for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Here are a few take aways for us to consider…
Continue readingSpeak, Memory
Memory is a powerful pathway into deep sourcing; manifesting has to do with public accountability, and, once we embody (live) what we are creating, sustaining it is an ongoing process of learning and personal growth.
Continue readingDifficult Decisions
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HECMs can be financial lifesavers for seniors who want to age in place. But what if an individual or couple’s ability to age in place changes over time? Children or other significant relatives who live at a distance would be wise to plan ahead in order to help the elders in question remain independent for as long as practical.
This article on long-distance caregiving explains what family members need to know. Reverse mortgage professionals may want to keep such information handy to share with the children of clients and prospects who are participating in their parents’ HECM process, as well as to use as a handout when addressing groups about how a HECM can help seniors age in place.
Some of the key issues include:
- Medication management
- Food shopping and meal preparation
- Transportation
- Household safety and household management
One of the benefits of aging in place is mobility: being able to frequent the places one is accustomed to, such as bookstores, cafés, theatres, etc., whether a senior gets there by car, bus, bicycle or on foot. An increasing number of towns across America offer affordable senior transport such as Paratransit, a flexible shared transportation option that typically uses minibuses to take seniors and people with disabilities where they need to go. There are also transport services specifically for medical appointments.
The greater problem may be not the availability of such services, but persuading older adults — especially men — to use it.
Driving can be a thorny issue for families, as handing over the car keys signals “the end of independence” to many elders. Men who have managed businesses as well as been heads of household may insist they’re fine, even as slowed reaction times and visual or hearing impairments make continuing to drive dangerous — not necessarily because the senior isn’t being cautious, but because they may not be able to respond quickly enough to other drivers’ errors, or to an unexpected event such as a child darting into the street.
This page offers a wealth of information on aging and driving. The gentleman who curated the content reports that when he surrendered his car keys — even though he chose to do so due to failing eyesight — it was “a devastating experience. To live outside the security of a private bubble with a steering wheel put me in alien territory.”
Contrast this perspective with that of an 86-year-old woman who recently moved into a spacious senior apartment that she adores: “Mondays through Fridays, hourly from 9 am to 4 pm I can ride the Macon County Transit with a $25 monthly pass, permitting me to shop for groceries or whatever I need along a fixed route that includes Kmart, Walmart, library and also trips along the way by request. This solves the problem of being without a car. Perhaps the reality is that even should I feel it is something I could afford, at my age — with slowed reactions, hearing deficiencies and readily distracted — I would simply be a road hazard and danger to others.”
Winston Churchill said, “We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.” The more we can flow with the rapidly evolving options for seniors that both a reverse mortgage and senior support services can provide, the greater the opportunity today’s and tomorrow’s elders will enjoy to age in place with purpose, participation and joy.
