USING HOUSING WEALTH TO FUND A SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Now both “officially” retired, you each continue to bring in gig income from personal coaching and speaking engagements. With no children or grandchildren (and therefore no need for extensive living space), you’ve nonetheless made the decision to spend your retirement years in the home you’ve occupied for decades, and which you’ve kept in excellent repair.

Despite the vagaries of the market – and the alarming increase in gasoline prices – you feel pretty well prepared financially going forward.

In fact, you’ve been giving thought to establishing some kind of annual scholarship fund through your alma mater (the university where the two of you met and earned both undergraduate and advanced degrees). The goal is to encourage students to select majors in environmental studies.

While you’re both committed to the concept, there is some concern about tapping your investment portfolio or retirement accounts to maintain the funding requirements years into the future. There is the possibility of using stock you inherited from your own parents as the original donation for the first year. Going forward, though, neither of you is comfortable committing one large upfront sum – you have decided you’d prefer to make this an annual gift.  

Once having funded the first annual scholarship with the stock, going forward, you might consider tapping into your own housing wealth using a reverse mortgage set up as a line of credit. Each year, you can withdraw from that line of credit, tax-free.* (Your tax advisor will verify that you can still qualify for a tax deduction on the contribution to the scholarship fund!) 

You’re rightly concerned about your own financial “safety environment” in future years. Yet using the equity in your home as the scholarship funding source avoids the need for you to tap the investment portfolio or retirement account, all while realizing your dream of encouraging those who’ve chosen the field of environmental studies.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Please consult a tax advisor.

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

USING HOUSING WEALTH TO HEAT A HOME 

Now that you’re both retired, you’ve begun the process of adapting your home inside and out to better suit your future “aging in place” needs and in general to improve the décor and the front and back yards. Your appliances, HVAC system have all be updated or replaced, You have already installed a charging station for the electric vehicles you purchased. Importantly, all these things have been paid for without any new borrowing or reducing reduce your regular withdrawal plan out of your investment portfolios and IRAs. 

For the past couple of years you have served on the board of your Homeowners’ Association, and one of the neighbors was able to obtain a sufficient number of signatures to petition our board to install solar panels on his home. As a board, you’d invited your HOA attorney to speak. In the course of learning about the cost-saving advantages of going solar, the two of you have become interested in doing that on your own home. You definitely like the idea of reducing costs and tax credits, because, like everyone else you know, the electric bills have moved in only one direction – up. You’ve gotten some tentative quotes on pricing, and it’s obvious this big a project would shake up your finances.  

How best to finance the “conversion” to solar is your financial management dilemma now – would a payment plan be a better course of action rather than a mortgage on the home itself? 

You might consider a reverse mortgage, using the equity you’ve built up in the home to finance the solar panel installation. That way, you’ll be able to take advantage of government and state incentives without the additional costs of an installment plan — and you’ll avoid monthly mortgage payments.* Whatever portion of your housing wealth is not needed for the solar project will grow at the same rate as the interest being charged on the reverse mortgage loan. Until such time as you sell the home, move, or die, neither you nor your heirs will be liable for any part of the loan that exceeds the value of the home.

While you’ll be “helping the Earth” by promoting sustainable energy and fighting climate change, you’ll be effecting a positive long-term change in your own financial picture.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Borrower must occupy home as primary residence and remain current on property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, the costs of home maintenance, and any HOA fees.

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

USING HOUSING WEALTH TO FUND PROTECTION PLANS 

Now both fully retired (as of the end of 2025) from your full-time jobs (you continue to each bring in a modest amount in gig income), you’re devoting serious effort towards streamlining your bill-paying and examining your recordkeeping “systems” and reviewing all the different kinds of insurance you have, with the goal of creating a “calendar” of premium payments and of re-assessing coverage. (Together you have homeowner’s insurance with a liability rider. You each have a Medicare supplement, and each is covered by a long-term care insurance policy. As a next step, you’d talked about choosing dental insurance plans.

With more time available now to watch daytime TV, you’ve been struck by the sheer volume of pharmaceutical ads touting one “cure” after the next. In addition, you’ve been seeing commercials about the cost of funerals nowadays, offering prepaid funeral insurance. Now you  intend to research that form of preplanning as well.

Long ago you made the decision to remain in your home after retirement. Given that most of the work to make the place more “age-suitable” has been completed and paid for, from a

budgetary standpoint going forward, it looks as if you have enough “wiggle room” to accommodate all the premium costs for the different kinds of insurance, including the dental and prepaid funeral plans if you move ahead with those. On the other hand, you don’t want to feel squeezed, since these costs are continually rising. 

Since you appear to be seeking “structure” in funding different forms of insurance protection, you might consider using your “housing wealth” as the “protection funding source” in the form of a reverse mortgage set up as a line of credit. Once you have your “calendar” of insurance premiums organized, the equity in your home will begin to serve as the source from which you draw, perhaps quarterly, to pay all the different insurance premiums.

Unlike withdrawals from investment or retirement accounts, those reverse mortgage distributions will be tax-free.* Meanwhile, the “unborrowed” portion of your housing wealth will be guaranteed to grow, tax-free,* at the same rate of interest as that being charged on the mortgage balance itself. Most important, your housing wealth can be the key to “insuring” now and future costs, staying home while staying protected..

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Please consult a tax advisor.

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

USING HOME AS A HAVEN IN FINANCIAL CRISIS TIMES 

“Oil spike drives client calls, tests advisors’ messaging discipline”, Rob Burgess observes in Financial Planning.How true, you cannot help thinking. As a wealth management veteran, you’re spending an increasing percentage of your time reassuring clients, urging them to “stay the course” and avoid upending the careful asset allocation plan you’ve helped them put into place.

“Investor psychology is playing a powerful role in portfolio moves in 2026,” James Royal writes in MarketWise. The market environment is being shaped by volatility, shifting economic signals, and heightened emotional pressure, he adds. While naturally Concerned about promoting any product in which you lack specialized training (or becoming involved in areas not specifically covered by your own broker-dealer’s compliance,

“Financial advisors must pay attention to their client’s home equity, as this is a vital asset that can be used as part of a coordinated strategy to improve retirement outcomes,” Dr. Wade Pfau, PhD, CFA writes. The concept – a reverse mortgage line of credit can serve as a form of insurance to protect against investment losses. 

Looked at as a “buffer asset”, clients’ housing wealth, often a significant element of their net worth, can become the means to their avoiding panic liquidation of investment assets, allowing homeowners to use home equity for tax-free* cash flow rather than withdrawal from their portfolios. 

“Most people operate better in a predictable, stable environment than in a chaotic, uncertain one, “Morey Stettner observes in MarketWatch.”This is not an easy time for advisers because many norms of investing and economics appear to be blowing up.”

Undoubtedly, you tell yourself, these issues will blow over, not blow up. Meanwhile, though, clients’ homes can be havens in financial crisis times.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Please consult a tax advisor. 

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

HOME WITH A REVERSE MORTGAGE DOES NOT MAKE THE “WORST ASSETS” LIST 

An article you read lately has caused you to rethink your estate plan, which was originally conceived before your wife passed away. What first captured your attention was the Kiplinger article about what assets to leave for one’s heirs. “Let’s face it,” Elaine Silvestrini and David Rodeck point out in Kiplinger, “Certain inheritances can be a tremendous burden on your loved ones.”

Once you began reading more on the subject, you became even more concerned. While timeshares seem to make everyone’s worst-assets-to-inherit list, houses are also listed as problematic, if they require extensive repairs or have large mortgages. “In many cases, beneficiaries assume they can simply sell the property and pocket the proceeds – but when the mortgage balance, property taxes, repairs, or liens exceed the home’s value, there is often little or nothing left after closing”. 

The Plan You Don’t Want to Change

One decision which you’d originally made while your spouse was still alive is one you have no intention of changing, spending the rest of your life in this very home. There is no longer a mortgage, but the place is going to need some repairs and relatively minor alterations to accommodate you as you age. (You’d held off so far, no wanting to go into debt or disturb your investments at an uncertain political time.) Now, reading those articles has started you questioning your plan. While neither of your sons is likely t

o want to live in the house, you don’t want to leave them with problems settling your estate after your death.

Using Home Equity Without Monthly Mortgage Payments*

Rather than liquidating investments or taking out a second mortgage, you might consider accessing your home equity in a different way—through a reverse mortgage. By using an FHAinsured HECM Adjustable Rate line of credit, you could draw only the funds needed to complete the renovations. You would continue to pay property taxes and homeowners insurance (based on the newly appraised value), but no monthly mortgage payment is required*. Any unused portion of the available credit grows over time at the same rate being charged on borrowed funds—and that growth is nontaxable.

What Your Heirs Can Expect

When the time comes, your heirs are not left with a burden. Instead, they have clear, positive choices:

1. Pay off the loan balance (or, if lower, 95% of the home’s appraised value at the time)
2. Sell the home, keeping any remaining equity
3. Turn the property over to the lender, with no impact on their personal credit
   

One More Important Step: The Conversation

As you weigh your options, this article may also be helpful: New York attorney Neil V. Carbone notes that children are more likely to respect a parent’s wishes when those wishes are explained in person—even if they’re difficult to hear—rather than first learning about them from a will while grieving. A thoughtful conversation with your two sons may help clarify the best path forward.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Borrower must occupy home as primary residence and remain current on property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, the costs of home maintenance, and any HOA fees. David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

MAKING ROOM FOR DAD USING A REVERSE MORTGAGE

Since your mother passed away, Dad’s health has been a bit iffy. While he’s still able to drive and take care of his basic needs, you worry about him constantly. As a widow now retired from full-time work, you stay in touch with your father daily, but it’s still quite burdensome to make the two-hour drive to visit him regularly. Meanwhile, both of your adult children live in other states, with jobs and families of their own; neither can reasonably visit their grandfather on a consistent basis.

You’ve been exploring various assisted living facilities near to your home but now are thinking of building an addition onto your own house to create an apartment for Dad. Fortunately, there is sufficient space on the property to accommodate such an addition with a separate entrance, yet allowing access to the lower floor of your own living quarters. You’ve spent the last two months getting proposals from builders, even researching the zoning laws. 

Your father is amenable to the move and offered to help pay for the renovations. However, while you will allow him to contribute to the upkeep of the home, you know his finances are not set up for a large lump sum commitment. You’ve been considering different options for financing the structural addition and the furnishing of the apartment, perhaps cashing in some investments and taking out a second mortgage (your first mortgage was paid off with the proceeds of your late husband’s insurance policy). 

You’re certainly not alone in exploring multi-generational living. A recent survey revealed that “Americans are twice as likely to consider moving elderly relatives under their roof that to explore retirement homes”. However, instead of cashing in investments or taking out a second mortgage, you might consider tapping into your home equity in a different way, using a reverse mortgage. 

By deploying your own “housing wealth” using an FHA-insured HECM Adjustable Rate Loan line of credit, you’ll be able to draw down the amount needed to finance the reconstruction work. You’d continue to pay real estate taxes and insurance (on the newly appraised value of the home, of course), but there will be no monthly mortgage payment* due. Meanwhile, any unused portion of your equity will be credited with non-taxable growth at the same rate as that being charged on borrowed funds.

                   A reverse mortgage might prove to be the key to making room for Dad.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Borrower must occupy home as primary residence and remain current on property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, the costs of home maintenance, and any HOA fees.

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender

DANCING THE HORA USING HOME EQUITY

After a health scare a couple of years ago turned out to have only a minor impact, you reevaluated your plan to sell your home and move into a new, upscale retirement community in northern Indiana. Emotionally, it felt simpler to stay put in the home you’d owned for decades. Now, entering your seventies, you’re glad you made the decision to “age in place” in favor of the familiar. (That choice even freed up extra dollars for travel.)

Early next calendar year, with your twin grandchildren—a boy and a girl—turning 13, you’ve decided to organize and host a family reunion around the occasion of their Bar and Bat Mitzvah. After speaking with the rabbi and gathering cost estimates for hotel accommodations, catering, and other expenses, you realize the financial commitment would require liquidating portfolio assets to an uncomfortable degree. You’re still determined to proceed, but you begin considering whether to apply for a home equity line of credit—something you used years ago to help finance upgrades to your home after deciding to stay.

You might also consider an alternative way to tap your housing wealth: arranging a reverse mortgage line of credit on your home and using taxfree* withdrawals to help cover the cost of the family celebration. With no requirement to make monthly mortgage payments,** you can move forward with your plans without concern for ongoing cashflow obligations. Meanwhile, the unborrowed portion of your available housing wealth is guaranteed to grow at the same rate as the interest charged on the borrowed funds.

By using a reverse mortgage instead of a traditional home equity line of credit, you can have the whole family saying “Mazal Tov” and dancing the hora in style alongside the Bar Mitzvah boy and Bat Mitzvah girl.

https://mutualreverse.com/david-garrison

*Please consult a tax advisor.

**Borrower must occupy home as primary residence and remain current on property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, the costs of home maintenance, and any HOA fees.

David Garrison, NMLS ID 1595194. Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Inc. dba Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage, NMLS ID 1025894. 3131 Camino Del Rio N 1100, San Diego, CA 92108. Indiana-DFI Mortgage Lending License 43321. Michigan 1st Mortgage Broker/Lender/Servicer Registrant FR0022702. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and the document was not approved by HUD, FHA or any Government Agency. Subject to credit approval. For licensing information, go to: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

Equal Housing Lender