Retirement Plans Soar in Strong Market, But Half of Americans Missing Out Americans with 401(k)s have had reason to celebrate the last two years, as record stock market performance has inflated retirees’ nest eggs. But despite all the sunny news, a huge swath of Americans is missing out, according to a Thursday post from the…

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Reverse Mortgage-What is it?  Reverse Mortgage-What is it? Just under 20% of seniors who responded to a recent survey were aware of reverse mortgages — despite showing an overwhelming desire to stay in their homes and potentially make renovations into old age. Among homeowners aged 60 to 70, 44% said they would keep a mortgage…

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What To Do If You’re Home Rich And Cash Poor. A story I found from Forbes magazine today. What To Do If You’re Home Rich And Cash Poor. A story I found from Forbes magazine today. Your credit score is a big factor for most programs that allow you to draw some of the equity…

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Why the HECM Reverse Mortgage Market Is Stunted – and What Can Be Done About It. by Jack Guttentag, Contributor. Professor of Finance Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Jack Guttentag, Contributor Professor of Finance Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. On the positive side of the…

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Taking Social Security Payments ASAP Makes Retirees Happy, But At What Cost? The decision to take or delay receiving Social Security payments can be one of the most difficult quandaries that retirees face, and the right answer isn’t always the one that results in the most immediate happiness. Financial planning blogger Dirk Cotton explores this…

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Could a Reverse Mortgage (HECM) Save Your Retirement? Now It Counts-Home section. A HECM saves your retirement if you’re a homeowner age 62 or older, have paid down all or a considerable amount of your mortgage, and currently living in the home, you may participate in FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program. HECM is…

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Financial Assessment for Reverse Mortgages Looks Better and Better. Financial Assessment is still working, only more so. The Federal Housing Administration’s new policy of requiring financial assessment of the borrower’s ability to pay has cut tax and insurance defaults by nearly three-quarters and serious defaults by almost two-thirds. These results are even better than the…

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Trump’s Proposed Budget Would Lift Reverse Mortgage Cap. by Alex Spanko The Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development would eliminate the cap on the number of reverse mortgage loans. “This change supports the significant improvements that have been made to the program to reduce risk to the MMI…

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Realizing Peoples Needs. I found this in the Chicago Tribune. Written by Benny L. Kass. Benny is known for badmouthing Reverse Mortgages until now…….. Q: We need money to pay for some personal matters. We are both 65 years old and have a small mortgage on our house but have plenty of equity. We are…

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Scam Prevention. FDIC Issues Updates to Elder Scam-Prevention Program The government has always considered seniors a protected class, making sure they don’t get scammed and I am a big proponent of that myself. I have told my clients before to go put this money in a new bank you have never been to before because…

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