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Housing Wealth Takes Center Stage in Washington, D.C. – What Has Changed with Reverse Mortgages that Made This Happen?

What Do All of These People Have in Common?


If you said Housing Wealth thought-leaders, you’d be correct!

These academicians and practitioners gathered for the first ever Housing Wealth in Retirement Symposium last week in the nation’s capital.  It was a stunningly well-done event, and as the name suggests, Housing Wealth was in the spotlight (deservedly so). Notable media outlets were in attendance as well: USA Today, Kiplinger, Forbes and US News and World Report. So were national organizations that strive to help retirees optimize their retirements: FINRA, AARP, Fannie Mae, National Council on Aging and many more. Not every organization was cheering (though most were), but their attendance did affirm their confidence in the Reverse Mortgage program and its continued improvements.

From the White House to Wall Street to Main Street in middle America, the refrain has grown louder each day.  The Reverse Mortgage program may not be right for every client, but there is a significant amount of research and work being done to make the program useful to all types of Americans from the mass affluent to low-income borrowers.

Some of My Takeaways

  • Housing Wealth is now an indisputable part of the retirement income conversation; it’s no longer “alternative” medicine. Reverse Mortgages are mainstream.
  • Those who are not addressing and incorporating Housing Wealth into their retirement income conversations are doing their clients a huge disservice.
  • There are many advisors, educators and even advocates who would benefit from a comprehensive, yet simple overview of the program.
  • Many advisors have come to understand and appreciate the role that the Reverse Mortgage can play in retirement income planning, but are still unsure of the best way to identify clients who may benefit and then introduce the subject matter.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The good news is that there is now a broad-based, academic acceptance of the Housing Wealth concept. The challenge is in moving from the Academic into the Pracademic! That’s where a few educational resources we have developed can help.

  • My newest book, Housing Wealth: 3 Ways the New Reverse Mortgage is Changing Retirement Income Conversations (An Advisors Guide), covers the Pracademics. I will talk about it next week, but you can find out out at www.HousingWealthBook.com 
  • The Housing Wealth Certified Advisor training course takes the advisor through all the practical things they need to know about Reverse Mortgages and prepares them to speak intelligently about the subject matter to their clients.  www.HousingWealthInstitute.com 
  • Webinars, Workshops, DVDs and Conference Speaking.  All of these are available to the advisor and financial firms to get them up to speed and ahead of the curve as it relates to Housing Wealth in Retirement Income Planning.

To learn more, just go the Contact Us page and send me an email.

Who else was at the Symposium?

  • Forbes — Check out the article they wrote about the symposium: Reverse Mortgage Could Become Wiser In Bear Market Contend Two Experts
  • AARP
  • AARP Public Policy Institute
  • Affordable Housing Institute
  • ALM Media
  • AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions
  • American Academy of Actuaries
  • Ameriprise Financial
  • Bank of America Merrill Lynch
  • Barron’s
  • Bipartisan Policy Center
  • Blue Ocean Global Wealth
  • BRStucki Consulting
  • Buckley Sandler LLP
  • Carematch America
  • Citi
  • CJM Ltd.
  • Columbia Business School
  • Congressional Budget Office
  • Connecting Aging and Business
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • COUNTRY Financial
  • DC Reporter
  • Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
  • Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
  • Fannie Mae
  • Federal Housing Finance Agency
  • Fi360
  • Financial Finesse Coach to Woman
  • Financial Services Roundtable/Housing Policy Council
  • FINRA Foundation
  • Funding Longevity Task Force
  • George Washington University
  • GreenPath Financial Wellness
  • HECM Advisors Group
  • Home Care Association of America
  • Homeownership Preservation Foundation
  • HUD –  Single Family Housing
  • HUD-PD&R
  • ICBA

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  • ICMA-RC
  • Pete Neuwirth Independent Research
  • Int’l Retirement Resource Center
  • Investment Company Institute
  • J.P. Morgan Asset Management
  • KGS Alpha Capital Markets
  • Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
  • Kiplinger’s Retirement Report
  • Law Offices of Barry H. Sacks
  • LifeMark Securities
  • Lincoln Financial
  • Longbridge Financial
  • MassMutual
  • McLean Asset Management Corp.
  • MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy
  • National Academy on an Aging Society
  • National Council on Aging
  • National Housing Conference
  • National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association
  • Navy Federal Credit Union
  • New York Life
  • NEXT Financial
  • Northwestern Mutual
  • Office of Congressman David Schweikert
  • Office of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
  • Office of Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay
  • Ohio State
  • One Reverse Mortgage
  • Pension Resource Institute & Retirement Law Group
  • Pew Charitable Trusts
  • PlanAmerica, LLC
  • Politico
  • Potomac Strategies LLC
  • PSCA
  • PwC
  • Quicken Loans
  • Retirement Funding Solutions
  • Reverse Mortgage Investment Trust Inc
  • ReverseVision, Inc.
  • RiskSpan
  • SeniorLAW Center
  • Skyline Home Loans
  • Society of Actuaries
  • Strategic Business Insights
  • Summit
  • Sunrise Wealth Partners
  • Synergy One Lending
  • The American College of Financial Services
  • The Aspen Institute
  • The Brookings Institute
  • Thrive Income Distribution System, LLC
  • US News and World Report
  • Urban Institute
  • Voya Financial
  • Weiner Brodsky Kider PC
  • WL Ross & Co.
Don Graves, RICP®, CLTC®, Certified Senior Advisor, CSA®
Don Graves, RICP® is a Retirement Income Certified Professional and one of the Nation’s Leading Educators on the Emerging Role of Reverse Mortgages in Retirement Income Planning. He is president and founder of the HECM Institute for Housing Wealth Studies and an adjunct professor of Retirement Income at The American College of Financial Services. He has helped tens of thousands of Advisors as well as more than 3,000 personal clients since the year 2000
Don Graves, RICP®, CLTC®, Certified Senior Advisor, CSA®
Don Graves, RICP®, CLTC®, Certified Senior Advisor, CSA®

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