Letter to the editor: most advisors would rather preach 'buy, hope and pray'

Here is the next foreclosure crisis. It will be the “baby boomers” carrying “traditional” mortgage debt into their “fixed income, retirement years.” They will be servicing debt with Social Security and maybe a pension (their savings is already gone because their advisor had them the stock market). The foreclosure will take place one year after one of them dies. One of them is going to die and the surviving spouse is going to loose 1/3 to 1/2 of the income, so the ssurviving spouse will no longer be able to make the mortgage payment.

If you are 62 and still making a mortgage payment, you need to look at the reverse mortgage–now. You can still make a payment on a reverse mortgage to keep the debt from growing, but if something should happen to you financially and that payment becomes a burden, you can stop making the payment and not worry. If you stop making your payment on a traditional mortgage, you are going to get foreclosed on, guaranteed.

Just like annuities, with a reverse mortgage it is not about the cost, it is about the guarantees.

But, all the financial advisors out there would prefer “buy, hold, and pray.” Why? Because it keeps assets under management so they can collect the 1.5% management fee every year regardless of the client’s well being.

Richard Woychowski
Reverse Mortgage Advisor
Envoy Mortgage
St Clair, Mich.
[email protected]