AARP Advice For Keeping Banks Out of Your Pocket

5/31/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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AARP has a great article describing seven ways to keep the banks from making up for their lost profits at your expense. Even though President Obama just passed the new credit card reform bill, it will not take effect for over 9 months.

Meanwhile, the banks are scrambling to devise ways that they can make up for the anticipated lost profits that they will experience once the bill takes effect. AARP offers some great tips on what you can do to protect yourself from the new tactics that banks have all ready started to impose. Don't let the banks use you as their scapegoat and by all means don't let them reach into your pocket to line their pockets.

Read what AARP has to say here: Seven Ways To Beat The Bank

Senior Housing In High Demand

5/22/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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The CEO of Emeritus Corporation, Mr. Granger Cobb, explained in an interview conducted on The Street.com why senior housing demand has not slowed in spite of the current turmoil in the housing and stock markets. Emeritus Corp. builds and provides assisted living facilities and senior housing in 37 states. He says they are seeing growth in every one of the 37 states, mainly because their product is "need" driven, rather than discretionary. He goes on to say that, aging is not an optional choice for people, in the same way that deciding whether to go out to dinner or a movie is.

Reverse Mortgage Bill Vetoed In Minnesota

5/22/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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Yesterday, Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota vetoed SF 489, which would have had unintended and detrimental consequences for senior homeowners in Minnesota that would like to take advantage of accessing home equity through the use of a reverse mortgage loan.

If passed, the bill would have increased the right to rescind (cancel) period from the current three days, to ten days on the closing of a reverse mortgage loan. It also would have imposed a suitability requirement as well as added restrictions on the cross selling of other financial or insurance products at the time a person takes out a reverse mortgage.


National Oversight Is All Ready In Place - No Need For Over-Kill

HUD in conjunction with AARP and NRMLA (National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association) have collectively taken action to strengthen the protections for seniors on a National basis. In some cases, when states step in and try to implement additional regulations, we see that what actually happens is that the regulations become more confusing and sometimes contradict each other. The so-called "unintended consequences" of meaning well, can backfire and actually cause less availability of a much need product, like a reverse mortgage. We saw that very thing happen in the state of Washington about a year ago. It took until just a couple of weeks ago to get that "unintended consequence" amended, so that now senior citizens in Washington state have full access to competitive reverse mortgage lenders and products.

Had it not been for Governor Tim Pawlenty wisely choosing to veto this bill, something similar could have happened to senior homeowners in the state of Minnesota. Take a look at his comments about his decision below.

Minnesota_Reverse_Mortgage_Veto

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Reverse Mortgage Could Stop Foreclosure For Tennessee Woman

5/21/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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A 73 year old Tennessee woman is trying to stop the foreclosure of her home with a reverse mortgage. She has been approved for the reverse mortgage, but when her home was appraised, the value of her home was not sufficient enough for the reverse mortgage to entirely payoff her existing mortgage.

Many folks have been able to successfully prevent home foreclosure by using a reverse mortgage, which allows them to payoff the full balance owed on their homes and then live mortgage free for as long as they remain in the home.

The caveat, however, is that the appraised value of the home is the most important component to determine how much money a senior is allowed to borrower from a reverse mortgage. In the case of Lorraine Zickefoose from Alcoa Tennessee, her homes' value was not high enough to completely satisfy her current "forward" mortgage balance.

She is now facing eminent foreclosure unless she can come up with the difference between the amount of money she can get from the reverse mortgage and the loan balance on her current mortgage. As you can see from the video clip linked below, her church and community are rallying around her to try to raise the necessary funds in order for her to save her home from foreclosure.

Even though Lorraine's story is not finished yet, it is clear that without a reverse mortgage she would have had no hope of saving her home from foreclosure. Now with the help of her community and the proceeds from the reverse mortgage, she has a shot at saving her home and being able to live mortgage free for the rest of her life.

Watch her story here:

Credit Card Bill of Rights Approved by Senate

5/19/2009

posted by N. Sioris

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Today the Senate passed a consumers' credit card "bill of rights" measure that will curb fees and limit surprise changes to the agreed upon terms, by credit card issuers. The legislation however, will not cap interest rates, which some lawmakers had pushed for.

The House passed a similar measure last month. The Senate version will go back to the House where it is expected to get final approval before going to President Obama. The President is expected to sign off on the legislation before Memorial Day, next Monday.

Not surprising, the banks opposed the measure and The American Bankers Association lobbied hard against its' passage, but in the end they did not succeed in thwarting the bill.

If the measure is enacted into law, the credit card industry will have nine months to change the way it conducts business, (which from my perspective, is way too long to wait for this long overdue legislation.) It will be interesting to see what kind of havoc these card issuers wreak on the public between now and nine months from now.

Here is a news clip from CNBC describing the legislation: