Rick's Blog
What Are the Pros and Cons of Today’s Reverse Mortgage?
A reverse mortgage allows homeowners, typically aged 62 or older, to convert home equity into cash without selling their home or making monthly payments. Key pros include no obligatory mortgage payments, tax-free proceeds, optional flexible payment options, and protection against owing more than the home’s value. Main cons include significant upfront costs and increasing loan […]
Who Created Reverse Mortgages in the US?
Some people have heard that a reverse mortgage is a scheme or a scam perpetrated on helpless seniors. Others may consider a reverse mortgage a welfare handout. Many are surprised to learn that the 100th U.S. Congress initiated the modern reverse mortgage through the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, which President Ronald Reagan […]
How Would More Attention to the Housing Asset Affect the Covid-19 Retirement?
FPA San Francisco Newsletter Rick San Vicente, VP NW Sales Leader, Mutual of Omaha Mortgage with Shelley Giordano, Academy of Home Equity in Financial Planning, University of Illinois The famous physicist Werner Heisenberg reportedly mused that when he gets to Heaven, he hopes that “turbulence” can be at last be explained to him. Tongue-in-cheek, Heisenberg […]
Long-Term Care: Bridging the Gap
Few financial threats are more destructive to a retirement plan than a prolonged long-term care event. Medicare covers custodial care for only a short time, leaving families to face difficult choices: spend down assets to qualify for Medicaid, or pay out of pocket — bills that can easily climb into the hundreds of thousands of […]
What the Press Gets Wrong About Reverse Mortgages
Sadly, the understanding of how a reverse mortgages works remains weak. The fact is the HECM Reverse Mortgage always has provided essential safeguards for the consumer since its inception by Congress in 1989. So even if it is wise to avoid using the word “never” in life, homeowner fears are allayed via an understanding of […]
Don’t Wait to Consider a Reverse Mortgage
People familiar with reverse mortgages know that the initial benefit is affected by home value, homeowner age and interest rates. The higher the age, the more money available, the higher the interest rate, the lower the available credit at outset. This can encourage folks to attempt to “time” setting up a reverse mortgage. Yet there […]