A reverse mortgage specialist your clients can be sent to safely.
You have clients who are house-rich and cash-constrained. I’ve spent three decades in California residential lending, most of it specialized in reverse. Here is exactly how I work with professionals, including the two commitments that matter most.
The research changed. Most practices haven’t caught up.
Peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Financial Planning reframed housing wealth as a coordinated retirement asset rather than a last resort. Three mechanics matter for your clients:
Sequence-of-returns protection
Clients draw from the reverse line during down markets instead of selling depressed assets, then let the portfolio recover. The order of withdrawals, not just the average return, decides whether money lasts.
The standby line of credit
Opened early and left unused, the HECM credit line grows over time regardless of the home’s market value: a reserve most advisors have never had explained correctly.
Jumbo at 55+
Proprietary programs serve California homes to $4 million with eligibility starting at age 55 and no FHA insurance premium. For affluent clients, the toolbox is larger than the FHA program most articles describe.
The client situations that cross my desk
| You are a… | The client situation I typically help with |
|---|---|
| Financial advisor / CFP | Portfolio drawdown pressure; a mortgage payment consuming retirement cash flow; establishing a standby credit line as part of the income plan. |
| Estate attorney | Home held in a revocable trust; funding needs without disturbing the estate plan; keeping a residence in the family while solving liquidity. See the attorney practice guide → |
| CPA / EA | Clients whose returns show the cash crunch first; interest and basis questions answered with documentation, not marketing. |
| Professional fiduciary / trustee | Court-supervised or trust-administered situations needing documented options, clean files, and conservative analysis. |
| Elder law attorney | Care-funding gaps where home equity is the available resource and every alternative needs to be on paper. See the elder law practice guide → |
| Real estate agent | The buyer 55 or older who cannot qualify on income, will not carry a payment, or is about to pay all cash, and the six percent a seller may legally contribute. See the agent purchase guide → |
The referral protocol: every file, no exceptions
Contact within one business day
I reach your client within 24 hours and copy you on the confirming email, so you know the hand-off landed.
Written scenario analysis within five days
Options, complete costs, and the do-nothing comparison, delivered to your client and to you. You see exactly what they see.
An honest no, when it’s no
If the loan is wrong for your client, I say so in writing, to both of you, with the reasoning. This is the commitment that protects your name.
You stay in the loop through closing
Counseling scheduled, California’s 7-day cooling-off period observed, underwriting milestones reported. No surprises reach your client before they reach you.
The relationship stays yours
Your client is never marketed to, never cross-sold, never added to a drip campaign. One loan, handled well, and the file closes.
Pick the one written for your desk
One is a fifteen-minute briefing for any referring professional. The other three are full practice references: one for estate, trust & probate attorneys, one for elder law attorneys, and one for real estate agents working the purchase side. All four are free, all are delivered instantly, and none of them adds you to a list.
The briefing, for advisors, CPAs & fiduciaries
The peer-reviewed research, the jumbo programs to $4 million, the compliance firewall, and exactly how referred clients are handled. The right starting point for every professional, attorneys included.
Request the briefingThe practice guide for estate, trust & probate attorneys
Seventeen client situations with the statutes, the traps, and illustrative fact patterns: fee funding, heir buyouts, Prop 19, conservatorships, Medi-Cal 2026, non-borrowing spouses, the stepped-up-basis play, plus an issue-spotting checklist for the phone.
Request the practice guideThe practice guide for elder law attorneys
The same seventeen case files, ordered for an elder law practice: Medi-Cal now that the asset limit is back, conservatorship care funding, aging in place, the special-needs household, plus a page answering authority under a power of attorney, capacity at closing, estate recovery, undue influence and VA Aid and Attendance.
Request the elder law guideThe purchase guide for real estate agents
The median repeat buyer in America is now sixty-two and a quarter of buyers pay all cash. Fourteen buyer situations, the six percent an interested party may contribute since 2024, and the eight things that kill a reverse purchase escrow, seven of them avoidable in the offer.
Request the agent guide
Written by Kenneth M. Adler
Every page on this site is written and maintained by me: the same person who answers the phone, runs your numbers, and handles your file start to finish. No call center, no hand-offs, no lead-selling. More about how I work →
Thirty minutes on what changed in reverse for affluent California clients.
No pitch, no ask. I’ll walk through the current rules, the jumbo programs, and the planning research, and you’ll leave knowing exactly when this tool belongs in a client conversation and when it doesn’t.
(818) 674-7284Four written resources
An eleven-page briefing for any referring professional, a thirty-one-page practice guide for estate, trust & probate attorneys, a thirty-two-page elder law edition, and a thirty-page purchase guide written for real estate agents. No follow-up campaign attached to any of them.