Reverse Fortunes Weekly Podcast Episode #173 The latest podcast from Reverse Fortunes takes a close look at reverse mortgage borrower education what one HECM counseling agency is doing through online resources to prepare its clients for counseling sessions. Also hear from Reverse Fortunes’ Shannon Hicks on business opportunities for reverse mortgage lenders in underserved states.

Wendover Consulting has hired former Wells Fargo “top trainer” Ken Kanady as managing director of learning and development. While at Wells Fargo in 2003, Kanady created the original reverse mortgage loan officer training program, Sales Training Orientation for Reverse Mortgage (STORM), under Wells Fargo’s Senior Products Group. Since the launch of STORM, Kanady has trained [...]

The future for HECM counseling funding remains uncertain, with October 1 as the date when funds are set to dry up. As that date approaches, lenders and some counselors have seen, and are continuing to see wait times for HECM counseling sessions are on the rise. For some, it can take up to two weeks—or [...]

More than three quarters of Americans think the economy is on the wrong track, as pessimism about the economy, home prices, and household finances continues to deepen, shows Fannie Mae’s August National Housing Survey. Negative opinion regarding the economy has risen to 78% up from the previous month’s 70%, with only 16% believing it is [...]

Reverse mortgages could play an important role in saving $30 billion per year in Medicaid spending, says long-term care reform advocate Stephen Moses. If people had to consume their home equity before qualifying for public benefits, spending on those public benefits would see a substantial decrease, Moses said in a congressional hearing Wednesday on Medicaid [...]

In case you missed it, here’s what happened in reverse mortgage news this week… HECM counseling funds saw a chance at making a comeback. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $125 million of funding to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a move that will help HUD-approved counseling agencies to continue providing their [...]