For financial planning purposes, I overlay the concept of how adequately funded a homeowner is for retirement. “Fundedness” reflects how well a family’s financial resources match their retirement needs and desires. Many in the top wealth quintile would be Well Funded, as would part of the third and fourth wealth quintiles. Constrained and Underfunded describe a broader range of households.

While the distribution of wealth is not surprising, it provides context for appreciating the range of homeowner’s needs and how their home equity may contribute by using a reverse mortgage.

The value reverse mortgages could bring to the aging US population starts with the breadth of users and uses. The value and breadth also challenge homeowners, financial professionals, and the reverse mortgage industry to find good matches between an individual homeowner’s situation and their highest and best use of a reverse mortgage.