You already know the research. You need an originator who does too.

Where a HECM fits in a plan

• Standby line of credit, opened early. The unused line grows at the current note rate plus the 0.5 percent annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP), compounding, and cannot be reduced, frozen, or cancelled for changes in home value or the borrower's credit while the loan terms are met. The growth is borrowing capacity, not an investment return. Opened at 62 and left alone, it becomes a meaningful reserve by 80.
• Sequence-of-returns buffer. Draw from the line in down-market years instead of selling equities; repay (optionally) in good years. The coordinated strategies in the literature show materially higher plan survival rates than the "last resort" approach.
• Social Security bridge, as a comparison. Term payments can fund the gap to a delayed claiming age; whether that beats claiming earlier is a planning question, not a default.
• Eliminating a forward mortgage payment on a fixed income, which is the single most common reason my clients call.
• Long-term care at home funded from the line rather than from liquidating the portfolio at the worst time.
• HECM for Purchase for the client who wants to right-size without paying cash or carrying a payment.
• Roth conversions and tax bracket management. Proceeds aren't income, so a draw can replace a taxable withdrawal in a conversion year. Coordinate with the CPA.

What your client gets from me

1. Discovery. A 15 to 30 minute conversation. You're welcome on the call.
2. Options. Within one business day: one to three structures with the principal limit, projected line-of-credit growth, cost breakdown, and amortization, or a plain explanation of why it doesn't work and what would change that. I'm happy to produce side-by-side scenarios at different draw strategies for your planning software.
3. Their decision. No deadline, no follow-up cadence designed to pressure them.
4. Execution. I process my own files. One point of contact from application through funding, and I stay the point of contact afterwards.

How I work with advisors

• I'm a broker, not a bank. Barrett Financial Group gives me access to multiple HECM investors and to proprietary jumbo reverse products for homes above the FHA limit of $1,249,125.
• You keep the client relationship. I report back to you at each milestone if your client authorizes it.
• I never cross-sell. No annuities, no insurance, no investments. I originate the mortgage and get out of the way.
• I'll present to your clients or your team: a 45-minute HECM lunch-and-learn with the research, the mechanics, and the honest downsides.
• Licensed in 20 states. Where I'm not licensed, a Barrett originator who is will lead the file and I stay involved.
• I explain how I'm paid and where every cost appears in the required disclosures. HECMs use a Good Faith Estimate, a HUD-1 settlement statement and reverse-specific disclosures including Total Annual Loan Cost; forward loans use the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure. I don't pay or accept referral fees; RESPA says so and so do I.

The honest downsides I'll tell your client

Upfront costs are high (2 percent initial MIP plus origination and third-party fees). The balance compounds. A short expected tenure in the home usually kills the math. Needs-based benefits can be affected by draws that sit in a bank account. And the strategy depends on the line being used as planned. If any of that is true for your client, I'll say so on the first call.