Category: Caring for Aging Parents; A Daughter’s Story

Laurie Denker MacNaughton © 2024

It’s not often I start off with a disclaimer… but here goes:

I am a reverse mortgage specialist. This means I am a loan officer who only does reverse mortgages.

Here’s what I’m not: I am not a financial planner. I am not an attorney. I am not an insurance agent.

Consequently, my observations below are going to be simply that, namely observations. But, they are observations made over the course of many years, and ones that deeply influence the way I am laying plans for my own eventual retirement.

There are four categories of missteps I see again and again that are made by women in their 60s, mistakes which can deeply impact financial security in the retirement years.

1. Retiring at 64. This is tricky, as there often are reasons someone retires in their early 60s—illness, an unwell spouse  or parent, loss of a job. There’s no controlling for the curveballs life can throw. But, if possible, work longer. Even a couple more years  or part time work can make a big difference.
2. Taking on significant debt shortly before retirement. It’s uncommon to see someone whose retirement income is higher than their pre-retirement income was. When relying on Social Security and retirement savings, having to also service a large car payment, credit card debt, or a HELOC payment can completely throw off even carefully laid financial plans.
3. Gifting monies to family members. I know this is a touchy subject, as many women hold the belief that family takes care of family no matter what. However, a change in thinking often needs to take place. If the gifter runs low on funds and the recipients have not gained the ability to handle their own finances, everyone can go down with the ship. A related topic includes co-signing credit cards, college loans, or auto loans for family members. If one party defaults, that debt does not go away, and the aging party can find herself deeply in debt and without a fallback position.
4. Underestimating life expectancy. Needless to say, this one is very difficult, as no one comes with an “expiration date.” However, I have had scores of women tell me they never imagined they would live so long, and that they burned through their savings at too fast a clip early in retirement. Don’t assume you’re only going to live into your early 70s. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a 65-year-old woman has a life expectancy of 20.8 years.

There is so much more I could say on this topic, but I will leave it here and simply say the following: in my role as a reverse mortgage specialist I have worked with hundreds of homeowners as they laid plans for retirement. The reason for this is because a reverse mortgage may play a significant role in improving financial survivability in retirement.

A reverse mortgage won’t be a fit for everyone, and not everyone will qualify.

But if you are—or an aging loved one in your life is— struggling financially, give me a call. Together let’s see whether a reverse mortgage might be part of the solution.

Laurie Denker MacNaughton © 2024

Unless Congress takes action, in a little more than 8 years Social Security recipients will see their monthly payments cut by 21%. And, astoundingly, some in Congress are talking about instituting this cut even earlier in the name of “affordability.”

Letting Social Security go bankrupt would direly impact America’s seniors, as nine out of ten rely on their benefits for a portion of their retirement income. Furthermore, National Institute on Retirement Security reports that 40% of older Americans rely solely on their monthly Social Security check.

Those most severely impacted will be retirees who were low- to middle-income earners. There is deep irony in the fact that some of America’s wealthiest are in charge of making the decisions that could fix this longstanding problem. But they’re running out of time to act.

Only Congress has the power to make changes to Social Security, and congressmembers are elected every two years.

Take away? Ask your congressmember what they’re doing to protect YOUR benefits.

For more on this topic, see:

• U.S. Government Accountability Office: https://www.gao.gov/blog/there-are-options-reforming-social-security-action-needed-now

• CNBC – What may happen to Social Security in 2023: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/what-may-happen-to-social-security-in-2033-if-trust-funds-arent-fixed.html

Laurie Denker MacNaughton © 2023

For nearly 50 years Charles had been concertmaster to some of the greatest conductors of the age: Sir Thomas Beecham, Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich—to name a few. When I met him his hands, though still lovely and graceful, were mottled by age and quaking with the effects of advanced Parkinson’s disease.

In early 2023 Charles and his wife, Lizbet, made the tough decision to sell their Washington, DC home and move to a condominium just over the river in Virginia. Between downsizing, packing, staging, and showing the home, the stress began to tell on Charles, so he and Lizbet decided it best for Charles to respite at a care facility until they settled on the new property.

Just miles from the new condo was a group home located in a single-family residence, licensed to care for no more than 8 residents. Far more affordable than larger, more traditional care facilities, the group home offered around-the-clock supervision, but no onsite medical care. Residents either continued under care of their own physicians, or contracted care with medical professionals associated with the home.

Group homes go by many different names, and regulations vary by state. However, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2020 there were some 13,000 small-scale, “residential care communities,” the generic term applied to the group home care model. Across the U.S., these homes provide care to some 81,600 residents. This number, of course, represents only a tiny fraction of seniors living in long-term care homes, a number that in 2020 stood at 1,290,000.¹

Nonetheless, the group home care model is unlikely to go away, as the need for residential living communities is projected to accelerate by some 60% over the next 10 years and—according to the US Census Bureau—is already nearly double what it was in 2012.²

Charles joined Lizbet in their new home once they had gone to closing and she had moved in and gotten settled—and they are thankful for the care Charles received while in the group home.

However, not everyone will have the option of going home, as some conditions require more care than an aging spouse can provide.

With this in mind, the more our aging homeowners know about evolving care solutions, the better they are likely to fair—both physically and financially.

Laurie MacNaughton © 2023

Yesterday I had a long conversation with a woman who doesn’t have equity enough to do a reverse mortgage. Her hours at work have been cut, and her mortgage is now 79% of her monthly income. We mapped out a game plan, discussed options, and I put her on my calendar to follow up with in a few months.

Three hours later she texted me the following:                

Thinking about all that I will have to do to qualify for your reversed mortgage. Your ways of doingbusiness is unfair. I would rather do business whom have a heart to help the needy!!!!

I’ve left typos in for reasons that will become clear.

My first response was shock. Then hurt feelings.

And then? Self-righteousness.

Total, sickly self-righteousness. And, truth be told, a good measure of self-pity.

What does this look like? It looks like, “Helping the needy? Do you know I paid someone else’s mortgage throughout the pandemic?” As in, “Do you know I work 7 days a week helping ‘the needy’?” As in… well, you get the point.

Dyed-in-the-wool, unmitigated, pathetic self-righteousness.

But after a long walk in the woods – and generous Puffs consumption – a semblance of balance crept in.

Not every conversation is a “win.” And you know what? I’m not in this for a “win,” at least not in any conventional sense.

I’m in this to help. Often – usually – even when I cannot help by means of a reverse mortgage, I can still help by providing other resources – a listening ear, a battleplan, an attorney referral. Compassion.

Money is scary. Housing is scary. And aging can be really, really scary.

This woman was so scared she could not frame a standard sentence. This woman was so scared she said things I’m certain she would not have said under normal circumstances. This woman is aging, she’s alone, and she’s facing true financial hardship.

And, for me, simply reflecting on this was truly a win.

For my soul. For my compassion. For my desire to help where I can.

Laurie MacNaughton © 2023

Recently I heard a heartbreaking story from a friend: a couple years back her 55-year-old cousin lost his job, and shortly thereafter had a stroke. He spent well over a year in a rehab facility, and during his recovery he fell behind on bills, including his property taxes. By the time I was hearing this story, the county had foreclosed on his home due to tax delinquencies.

Why did he lose his home? Because he lost his job and then had a stroke.

This morning I spoke with an attorney whose advanced-elderly client is losing her home to a tax foreclosure after not paying her property taxes for the past two years. Turns out, the homeowner has a reverse mortgage.

Why is her home in foreclosure? In many people’s eyes it’s because she has a reverse mortgage.

If someone loses his job and then loses his home, we blame the circumstances. If someone has a reverse mortgage and loses his home, we blame the mortgage.

Wait, what? How did we get here?

The entire story of how we got here is quite interesting, but it’s also too long to cover in its entirety in one column. The overview is this: in their earliest form, reverse mortgages had little federal oversight and few regulations, and by all accounts there was some pretty crazy stuff going on. Even with the modern reverse mortgage, until 2014 the qualifications were simply age and equity: if a homeowner was 62 and had enough equity, he or she could qualify. There was no financial assessment to verify the homeowner could pay property taxes and homeowner’s insurance on an ongoing basis.

This simple addition to the qualification process has gone a long way toward preventing problems.

So how is it that in 2023 an elderly woman with a reverse mortgage, living in Arlington, Virginia may lose her home?

She’s losing her home for this reason: she didn’t pay her property taxes. Just because she can afford to pay them it doesn’t mean she can remember to pay them. Even if she had no mortgage whatsoever, if she didn’t pay her taxes she would still be in foreclosure.

A couple points here. First, most Virginia tax jurisdictions offer property tax relief programs for older homeowners. Many homeowners are unaware of this, and it’s a shame – because tax relief can be a huge financial boost. Second, most tax jurisdictions allow taxes to be set up as an automatic, recurring payment. For some of our oldest homeowners interested in this option, this may mean they need a helping hand setting up recurring payments. My own father, a truly brilliant aerospace engineer, never did master the personal computer. My mother was quite good on the computer, but she wasn’t in charge of finances.

The third thing I want to point out is this: when homeowners with so-called “forward” mortgages lose their homes, the losses are spread over all age groups and the causes vary. When homeowners with reverse mortgages lose their homes, all the homeowners are nearing retirement or have already retired. When there is one demographic represented, it can be easy to blame the type of mortgage, even when the cause overwhelmingly is a failure to pay property taxes. Taxes are taxes, and they must be paid – unless homeowners are property tax exempt. It’s the classic “if you pay you stay; if you don’t, you won’t.”

One last thing of note is that it is now possible with a reverse mortgage to do something called a “Life Expectancy Set-Aside,” or LESA, whereby property taxes and/or homeowner’s insurance are withheld, and then paid by the loan servicer when due. A LESA may be required in cases where there is a spotty tax or homeowner’s insurance payment history. But some homeowners opt for a LESA simply out of convenience.

If you have aging loved ones in your life, please ask them if they would appreciate help setting up recurring property tax payments. Be mindful that the ability to keep track of dates, deadlines, and requirements may diminish as we age, and that the “money talk” may be one you need to have with loved ones on an annual basis. And check to see if they qualify for tax relief.

If you’re an aging homeowner and would like to know more about property tax relief programs, call your county’s Commissioner of the Revenue. Bank branch personnel and local librarians can also look up your county’s property tax exemption guidelines, and many will print the application forms.

Long gone are the days most of us are looking at funding retirement. Discussions now must be about how we’ll fund longevity – an altogether different proposition. If you’re having money issues, it’s better by far to ask for help earlier than later.

If you would like more information about the role a reverse mortgage can play in your long-range financial planning, or in the life of one you love, give me a call. I always love hearing from you.

Laurie MacNaughton © 2023

After a prolonged battle with cancer, in early 2021 her husband died. Now she needs to get out of her too-large home. Using a combination of proceeds from the sale of her current home and funds from investments, she was planning an all-cash purchase.

But then, you know, 2022.

And now that once-plump portfolio is looking very thin indeed, and she’s come to the following realization: an all-cash purchase, while technically possible, is going to leave her house-rich but cash-poor.

Enter Reverse for Purchase.

She’s buying the same house she had her eye on – only instead of paying all cash, or taking on a newly-minted mortgage payment, she’s putting 50% down… and she’s done.

She’s made the only mortgage payment she’ll ever make, as long as she lives in the home. When the home is sold, the loan will be repaid, in reverse. The rest of the equity will go to her or to her heirs.

And best of all? She can leave her investments untapped, giving them time to recover.

If your 55+ client, your parent, your friend, finds themselves unable to move forward with a purchase in a tough market, give me a call. I always love hearing from you.