For years we have heard both the promise and potential the retiring baby boomers hold for the reverse mortgage industry. While this potential and rapidly expanding market is somewhat tempered by increasingly high mortgage debt held by those 62 and older there is an overlooked niche within this group: the ‘mass affluent’. A recent Huffington Post blog entry entitled “When Even Wealthy Homeowners are Using Reverse Mortgages, The Question is: Why Aren’t You” speaks to the so called ‘mass affluent” who can almost retire comfortably.

First a sobering fact. Nearly 25% of those aged 50-64 have not saved a penny for retirement. Beyond that most who have saved have not saved enough with the median balance of retirement plans standing at a paltry $120,000 or about $400 a month adjusted for inflation. Then there’s the ‘mass affluent’ who have several hundred thousand in retirement savings yet will use a reverse mortgage to supplement their income in a down stock market…

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