Reverse Mortgage News & Insights from HECMWorld

What makes a reverse mortgage originator truly memorable?

In this edition of Food For Thought, Jason Back of Broker Essentials explores why the next competitive advantage for mortgage professionals may have less to do with product or process — and more to do with creating a signature client experience.

As customer expectations continue to rise, borrowers are no longer comparing their mortgage experience only with other lenders. They are comparing it with the best experiences they have across every part of their lives.

Jason breaks down:

• Why your loan process can be copied, but your signature experience can’t
• The evolution from product-led to advice-led — and now “signature” originators
• Four different originator archetypes and how they can help define your business
• Why educators and connectors are becoming increasingly valuable
• How to identify your own “signature sweet spot” across passion, personality and performance
• Why the experience clients remember can become one of your strongest drivers of advocacy and referrals

For reverse mortgage professionals, it is a timely question: what are you known for, and what makes the experience of working with you unmistakably yours?

Read the full article: https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/26/food-for-thought-how-to-build-a-signature-client-experience/

Watch or listen now for Jason Back’s insights on how to stand out in an increasingly crowded mortgage market.

In this Industry Leader Insights, HECM World speaks with Suzanne Newman, founder of Answers for Elders, about what is really happening in the lives of older Americans — and why reverse mortgage professionals may need to get into the conversation much earlier.

Suzanne shares what she is seeing around aging in place, the lack of proactive planning, the influence of adult children, and the fears that continue to shape how seniors think about reverse mortgages.

She also challenges the industry to think beyond the loan itself.

Why are so many housing decisions still made in crisis? What do seniors really need to age successfully at home? And what happens when misinformation online defines the reverse mortgage conversation before a professional ever gets involved?

In this episode:

• Why aging-in-place planning is often reactive
• The real-world barriers seniors face in staying at home
• Why reverse mortgage professionals need a broader aging-in-place ecosystem
• How adult children influence major financial decisions
• Why trust remains one of the biggest hurdles for older consumers
• The industry’s ongoing misinformation problem
• Why education and consistency matter long before a loan conversation begins

Suzanne also shares a direct invitation for reverse mortgage professionals to contribute educational content to Answers for Elders and become part of its growing aging-in-place ecosystem.

Read the full HECM World article here: https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/24/industry-leader-insights-reverse-mortgage-education-is-still-missing-the-real-senior-conversation/

This week on HECM World Weekly, the housing market is sending mixed signals, and the implications for reverse mortgage professionals are significant.

U.S. housing starts have fallen sharply, builder confidence remains weak and even cash buyers are pulling back. Yet homeowners continue investing heavily in the homes they already own, with remodeling activity supported by accumulated home equity, an aging housing stock and growing aging-in-place needs.

At the same time, ATTOM’s latest Home Equity & Underwater Report shows the share of mortgaged properties considered equity-rich has fallen to 41.1% — down from 47.4% a year ago and now at its lowest level in nearly five years.

We also look at why mortgage rates may remain elevated, fresh regulatory scrutiny around home equity investments, growing concern over Social Security, retirees’ reluctance to spend down savings, and the rising cost of long-term care.

For reverse mortgage professionals, these trends increasingly converge around one question:

How should housing wealth fit into a more complex retirement picture?

In this episode:

• Housing starts fall 12.4% month-over-month
• Builder incentives remain widespread
• Remodeling spending stays resilient
• Equity-rich homes fall to 41.1%
• Cash buyers retreat
• Mortgage rates remain under pressure
• California regulators warn on HEI risks
• 80% say Social Security needs reform
• Many retirees deliberately underspend
• Long-term care costs continue to climb

Read the full HECM World Weekly article: https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/21/hecm-world-weekly-equity-rich-homes-fall-as-housing/

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In this edition of Food For Thought, Christina Harmes, CRMP — reverse mortgage educator and Reverse Mortgage Division Director at Barrett Financial Group — challenges reverse mortgage professionals to rethink the way they approach prospective borrowers.

Too often, the process becomes transactional: collect the home value, mortgage balance and dates of birth, run the numbers and send the PDF.

Christina argues that this is exactly how professionals risk commoditizing themselves — especially in an age where calculators, software and AI can increasingly generate and compare the numbers.

The real value lies in understanding the person behind them.

In this episode, Christina explores:

• Why better discovery can lead to better reverse mortgage recommendations
• How two homeowners with identical numbers can need completely different loan structures
• Why sending jargon-heavy proposals without context creates a poor client experience
• The danger of giving borrowers exactly what they ask for without understanding why
• Why advisers sometimes need to recommend a different structure — or even say a reverse mortgage is not the right fit
• How deeper advice can improve client relationships, conversion and the reputation of the reverse mortgage industry
• Why human judgment and understanding may become even more valuable as AI advances

As Christina puts it: if all you do is send numbers, you risk reducing yourself to a PDF.

Read the full article here: https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/19/food-for-thought-reverse-mortgage-professionals-advice/

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New EY research reveals that 97% of established U.S. entrepreneurs pursued strategic partnerships during 2025 or 2026, while growth remained their number-one priority.

So what can reverse mortgage professionals learn from them?

In this Industry Leader Insights, HECM World publisher and Reverse Focus President Andrew Montesi explores how successful entrepreneurs are pursuing growth without bloat — using partnerships, AI, better data and greater leverage rather than simply adding more leads, technology, people and cost.

Andrew looks at:

• Why strategic partnerships have become a core growth strategy
• What the 97% finding means for reverse mortgage loan officers
• Why genuine partnerships go far beyond asking for referrals
• How trust can create measurable commercial value
• Why entrepreneurs are becoming more selective about AI and technology
• The data and visibility problem holding partnership networks back
• How reverse mortgage professionals can create more value from the relationships and opportunities they already have

For an industry built around education, trust and professional relationships, the lesson is clear: scale doesn’t always come from owning or adding more. Sometimes it comes from connecting what you already have much more effectively.

Read the EY research: https://www.ey.com/en_us/entrepreneurship/ey-entrepreneur-insights-survey

Visit HECM World for more reverse mortgage news, insights and industry analysis.

https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/17/industry-leader-insights-why-97-of-entrepreneurs-are-betting-on-partnerships-and-what-reverse-mortgage-professionals-can-learn/

This week on HECM World Weekly, Gabrielle Hayen looks at a series of connected stories reshaping the retirement and home-equity landscape.

U.S. mortgage-holder equity has reached a record $18 trillion, even as homeowners continue to move less and stay in their properties for longer.

At the same time, home equity investment companies are expanding, policymakers are looking at the cost of aging in place, millions of older Americans are still working, and new retirement-income benchmarks raise an important question: how well does the income retirees actually have align with the lifestyle they expect to maintain?

We also cover HUD’s revived $465 million HECM loan sale and what it means for the reverse mortgage market.

In this episode:

• Why record housing wealth matters more in a stay-put economy
• What the latest home-sales data says about homeowner mobility
• How HEIs are scaling and competing for home-equity access
• Why reverse mortgage professionals may need to compete on education, not simplicity
• The growing cost of aging in place
• Why more seniors are working longer
• What different retirement-income tiers look like in practice
• The latest on HUD’s HECM loan sale

The bigger theme: as more wealth sits inside homes that people increasingly want to keep, housing equity is becoming harder to separate from the broader retirement-planning conversation.

Read the full HECM World Weekly article here: https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/14/hecm-world-weekly-record-equity-meets-the-great-stay-as-heis-scale-and-retirement-costs-rise/

Subscribe to HECM World for the latest reverse mortgage, housing, retirement and home-equity insights.

 

Home equity investment companies are winning attention with a simple pitch: no debt, no interest, no monthly payment.

So how should reverse mortgage professionals respond?

In this HECM World Food For Thought, LoanDepot reverse mortgage leader Lisa Moriello explains why loan officers should stop trying to out-simplify HEI marketing — and instead reframe the conversation around the homeowner’s long-term financial outcome.

Lisa explores:

• Why HEIs are increasingly entering the conversation before a reverse mortgage does
• Why dismissing home equity investments outright can damage credibility
• The question loan officers should ask instead: what will you actually owe when you leave the home?
• Why “no interest” does not mean no cost
• How HEI settlement timelines can matter for homeowners planning to age in place
• The difference between sharing future home appreciation and paying interest
• Why HUD-approved counseling is an important distinction
• How to move clients from comparing marketing pitches to comparing actual outcomes

As Lisa puts it: “We’re never going to out-market a venture-backed app with a slick onboarding flow … but we can out-explain them every single time.”

For reverse mortgage professionals facing growing competition from HEIs, this is a practical framework for having a more credible, transparent and effective client conversation.

Watch the full Food For Thought with Lisa Moriello and read the article here

Visit hecmworld.com for more reverse mortgage news, insights and industry education.

 

Americans aren’t moving like they used to, and that could permanently change how they access home equity.

In this edition of Industry Leader Insights, HECM World speaks with Brian Fox, co-founder at Benutech, about the rise of the “stay-put economy.”

Benutech’s analysis shows traditional refinance activity falling almost 80% between 2021 and 2025, while equity lending increased 15%.

So what happens when homeowners protect their low-rate first mortgage, remain in place longer and look for other ways to unlock housing wealth?

Brian discusses why this shift may be structural, what it means for older homeowners, why downsizing no longer delivers the same financial relief—and how reverse mortgages could become an increasingly important “stay-put” financial tool.

Watch the full interview now.

Read the full article here and make sure you subscribe at hecmworld.com so you don’t miss a thing.

View the Benutech report https://www.benutech.com/the-stay-put-economy-how-rising-rates-transformed-american-homes-from-stepping-stones-into-fortresses 

This week on HECM World Weekly, we look at how America’s housing wealth is holding firm—but the way homeowners are using it is changing.

July’s HECM endorsement volume remained relatively subdued, while Finance of America reported strong year-over-year growth across its retirement solutions business. We also examine Rocket Mortgage’s new campaign positioning home equity as a potential alternative to high-interest credit-card debt.

Plus, new Bankrate research raises questions about whether older refinancing borrowers are paying more than they should, home prices continue to rise across most metropolitan markets, and families inheriting homes report growing difficulties retaining valuable low-rate mortgages.

Finally, new retirement research reveals that many Americans are more worried about running out of healthy years than running out of money—and what that could mean for the role of housing wealth in retirement planning.

In this episode:

• July’s latest HECM lender results
• Finance of America’s 21% funded-volume growth
• Rocket’s push to bring home equity into the mainstream
• Bankrate’s proposed refinance “seniority tax”
• The growing divide between local housing markets
• Mortgage complications within the Great Wealth Transfer
• Why retirees are rethinking the value of time, health and money

For more reverse mortgage news, analysis, research and industry insights, visit HECMWorld.com and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

In this Food For Thought episode, Jesse Allen, President of 55 Plus Lending at Rate, shares the lessons he's learned after more than 30 years in banking, financial services and mortgage lending—and after helping hundreds of mortgage professionals build successful careers.

Rather than focusing on compensation alone, Jesse explains why lasting success comes from choosing the right platform, the right culture and the right leadership.

Built around his simple framework of Focus, Systems and Discipline, this conversation offers practical advice for loan officers, mortgage leaders and anyone evaluating their next career move.

In this episode you'll discover:

• Why compensation alone shouldn't drive your career decisions
  • The importance of aligning your purpose with your company's mission
  • How great systems help professionals deliver a better client experience
  • Why discipline and continuous improvement create long-term success
  • The role leadership and culture play in building high-performing teams
  • What to look for when evaluating a mortgage company or platform

Whether you're an experienced originator or just starting your mortgage career, these principles provide a valuable framework for building something that lasts.

https://hecmworld.com/2026/08/05/food-for-thought-what-really-builds-a-successful-mortgage-career/

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