Browse by Tags

I recently spoke on two interesting panels at the American Conference Institute’s two day symposium on Reverse Mortgages. The conference attracted a virtual who’s who in the mortgage and reverse mortgage industry. The speakers and the attendees formed an eclectic group which ranged from major law firms, title companies, quality control experts, compliance examiners, HECM counseling experts and state and federal regulators and various enforcement agencies. There was a genuine desire to understand the program so that enacted policy could be effective. I want to address some of the more important ethical rules that, in my opinion, are the linchpin of the reverse mortgage industry. So, what does ethical conduct look like? ...

Recently lenders have been offering an option of ‘no origination fee’ on the HECM fixed rate reverse mortgage program. This sounds good on the surface but let’s look at the real implications....

The reverse mortgage industry started out as a fulfiller of dreams to the greatest generation. For its first 17 years of existence, regulators outside of HUD, showed little interest in the burgeoning industry. However, it seemed that once we broke through the 100,000 unit plateau of yearly closed loans, everyone started to take notice. ...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) endorsed its first HECM loan in 1989 and has endorsed over 525,000 loans since, with about 400,000 of those endorsements occurring between 2004 and 2008. HECMs account for nearly 90% of the entire reverse-mortgage market, meaning that nearly all of the reverse-mortgage risk lies with the U.S. federal government. This raises the question, what happens to the HECM portfolio when the value of the average U.S. home falls 30%, 40%, or even 50% over a relatively short period of time?...