This trend should be expected. Those who were 62 in 1989 are now 82 or 83 (in HECM age). Those 82 and older have been exposed to reverse mortgages for over 20 years. Many complain about being personally “over marketed” by reverse mortgage lenders especially after 1999.

As time goes by the cohort of seniors now 63 will become less and less likely to obtain a reverse mortgage. For nearly 20 years we have failed to reach the vast majority of seniors who have mortgages. If we cannot gain them with our current marketing, it is doubtful we will reach the other senior homeowners effectively.

We need products that are specifically designed to meet the needs of the other 98%. HECM Lite is among those possibilities. We certainly need to readdress our marketing and advertising campaigns.

One speaker at the recent NRMLA Road Show focused on reaching out to professionals. He mixed it with the ol' “numbers game” concept. When it came to new approaches or differentiating approaches between the type of professional, his message became very weak. He was very good with how to approach sellers of insurance and financial products which most of us can do and do OK at. Like the rest of us, his presentation did not address good ideas on how to approach CPAs or attorneys.

In my sophomore year in the industry I went to a meeting about reaching professionals. The problem is the presentation was so meager all I remember are the card tricks the gentleman used as the means to break up his presentation.

What is good is that we are recognizing our failure but what is bad is we are no closer to breaking through.

Critc: rnAgain we disagree! You really love to over analyze. Did you ever think that the current state of the economy is the main reason younger borrowers are doing reverse mortgages.rnThe majority of reverse mortgages done today are need based and the baby boomers are hurting!

treverse,

My comment was a meager analysis addressing the slowdown of origination among the older generations and how that trend will be seen in each succeeding generation u2013 an entirely different topic.

Letu2019s cheat though. Letu2019s find out what the people at RMI said in the paragraph that followed the one that Admin quoted above about baby boomers and the current trend:

u201cSo what does this mean for the industry? Well, it suggests that a common refrain of baby boomers being much more likely to use reverse mortgages than the WWII generation and those before is coming true. At the very least, baby boomers seem to be less put off by recent changes to the product and industry that have dropped overall industry volume by -39% in the first six months of 2010.u201d

It seems you are declaring that baby boomers are more “need based” because of the “current state of the economy” than other seniors and that is why the average age is dropping. But the people at RMI who deal with this stuff every day seem to think that it is the outlook of the baby boomers themselves about the use of reverse mortgages that is causing the most recent drop in average age.

Hmmm, which answer is right? If this were a bet and dollars were actually on the line, well then my bet is that you — being truly great in your own mind — would naturally choose well u2013 YOU!!!

Going to the linked site always seems to help people like me who want to see what the experts have to say about the subject. Read, click a link, read some more, analyze, and write u2013 not a bad habit to form — but some see no need for all of that nonesense in the middle.