A New survey from The American College of Financial Services, The Home Equity and Retirement Income Planning Survey, finds that “an overwhelming number of people nearing or in retirement want
to remain in their current home as long as possible”. Read Forbes article about the survey here.
This is nothing new of course. I’ve known this since I began helping people with reverse mortgages back in 2003. The American College just helped to make
it official.
The American College of Financial Services is the nation’s largest non-profit educational
institution devoted to financial services. They help to educate financial advisors in banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies on all areas of personal finance.
The survey, created to better understand retirees’ attitudes about home equity and housing decisions, also revealed that 44 percent have considered using
home equity in retirement, but that only 25 percent feel comfortable spending it as a source of income. It also found that only about 20 percent of
the respondents felt that it was extremely important to leave their home as a legacy asset to their children or other heirs, while 45 percent listed
it as not important.
Another purpose of the study was to gauge retirees’ knowledge of reverse mortgages. According to the survey, just 30 percent of the participants earned
a passing grade on basic knowledge about reverse mortgages. Furthermore, 10 percent of respondents answered all ten questions incorrectly.
Take the test for yourself here.
This is why I am passionate about educating consumers, as well as financial advisors about the pros and cons of reverse mortgages.