JSmith43
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 5, 2003
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- California
Nice google search, Elliot. I'd say you are two for two. After 20 seconds on each site, less time than it took to navigate there, I found:
The first lawyer site is pathetic & sparse. They compared negatives and positives, allegedly. They mentioned as a negative that you can't deduct interest on a RM.
Did they mention that the RM recipient gets their money out tax free as a positive? No. Let me see, no tax deduction vs tax free income. Duh.
They probably didn't mention that it is typical that the standard RM recipient has so little taxable income that the chances of benefiting from an itemized deduction vs opting for the standard deduction is somewhere around slim to none for the typical case. Verdict: Junk site.
Moving on to the second article. The CNN advisor throws this out within the first few paragraphs: You should also know that the interest rate and the fees you pay can vary enormously depending on which reverse mortgage lender you go to, as can the size of the payment you receive.
For HECM's that is 100% couldn't be more wrong, since the rates are totally uniform via FHA mandate. About the only thing you can squabble over is the size of the origination fee, the one thing he didn't mention.
There are custom RM products out there and that must have been his universe, the 10 or so percent of RMs out there that are non-HECM
Those people can perhaps afford to pay a financial planner to give them good or bad advice. I'm sure the chances of good advice is better than 50/50, but there is no shortage of BS financial planners out there.
Verdict: Beneath CNN standards. But, I'm going to go back and read the full article. I can't believe they let him publish this with explaining HECMs are the main product out there by a long shot & none of his conditions (in red) applied.:Eyecrazy:
I'm back. At least the CNN guy seemed to mean well. At the end of the article he linked the AARP site and briefly mentioned HECMs, He just doesn't have a clue that HECM's are 90% of the universe except for high cost areas where FHA loan limits vs homes don't cut it. BTW, the temporary FHA loan limits increase does not apply to HECMs. Their "modernization" legislation is stuck in the Senate, I think.
The first lawyer site is pathetic & sparse. They compared negatives and positives, allegedly. They mentioned as a negative that you can't deduct interest on a RM.
Did they mention that the RM recipient gets their money out tax free as a positive? No. Let me see, no tax deduction vs tax free income. Duh.
They probably didn't mention that it is typical that the standard RM recipient has so little taxable income that the chances of benefiting from an itemized deduction vs opting for the standard deduction is somewhere around slim to none for the typical case. Verdict: Junk site.
Moving on to the second article. The CNN advisor throws this out within the first few paragraphs: You should also know that the interest rate and the fees you pay can vary enormously depending on which reverse mortgage lender you go to, as can the size of the payment you receive.
For HECM's that is 100% couldn't be more wrong, since the rates are totally uniform via FHA mandate. About the only thing you can squabble over is the size of the origination fee, the one thing he didn't mention.
There are custom RM products out there and that must have been his universe, the 10 or so percent of RMs out there that are non-HECM

Those people can perhaps afford to pay a financial planner to give them good or bad advice. I'm sure the chances of good advice is better than 50/50, but there is no shortage of BS financial planners out there.
Verdict: Beneath CNN standards. But, I'm going to go back and read the full article. I can't believe they let him publish this with explaining HECMs are the main product out there by a long shot & none of his conditions (in red) applied.:Eyecrazy:
I'm back. At least the CNN guy seemed to mean well. At the end of the article he linked the AARP site and briefly mentioned HECMs, He just doesn't have a clue that HECM's are 90% of the universe except for high cost areas where FHA loan limits vs homes don't cut it. BTW, the temporary FHA loan limits increase does not apply to HECMs. Their "modernization" legislation is stuck in the Senate, I think.
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