In case you missed it, here’s what happened in reverse mortgage news this week.

Are we on the verge of a breakthrough for reverse mortgages and financial planners? An article in Financial Advisor magazine citing reverse mortgage research at Texas Tech as well as follow up from a recent article in the Journal of Financial Planning both touted the positive use of reverse mortgages in retirement. Including for a new reverse mortgage borrower “sweet spot.”

New York overtook Florida in the Top-3 reverse mortgage states. Top states California and Texas still take the top spots for endorsement volume, after New York and Florida have been “neck in neck” for most of the past year, says a recent report from Reverse Market Insight.

Ginnie Mae Prez Ted Tozer told all on reverse mortgages… in an April Reverse Review article, “The Rise of Ginnie Mae,” Tozer talks about the inception of the HMBS product, today’s top issuers (Urban, MetLife and RMS), and recent changes to issuer requirements. What’s in store? “It is obvious that there are lenders willing to step up and enter the program,” Tozer writes. “There are several new lenders already in Ginnie Mae’s HMBS approval pipeline, and there are a few already approved Ginnie Mae single-family issuers that are active in the forward market and interested in expanding their status by also becoming HMBS issuers.”

AAG “army” gears up for Alzheimer’s walk… this week, we wrote about what lenders are doing to give back. This weekend, more than 100 American Advisors Group staff will descend upon the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Orange County, California. “It’s always important to be involved with the community and AAG’s heightened sense of  civic duty is one of the reasons I joined the company,” said Senator Fred Thompson, AAG’s national spokesman.

HUD said it would administer a survey on reverse mortgage counseling. Recent borrowers can expect the survey, which aims to determine the quality of counseling, by mail or email.

Written by Elizabeth Ecker