Your home could fund the retirement your savings can’t.
A reverse mortgage isn’t a last resort anymore. Used correctly, it eliminates a mortgage payment, creates a growing line of credit, or buys the next home outright, while you keep the title. I’ll give you the honest version, including whether it’s wrong for you.
HECM or jumbo: which fits a California home
Most of what you’ve read online describes only the FHA program. California home values often call for the second column.
| FHA-insured HECM | Jumbo / proprietary | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum age | 62 | 55 for many programs |
| Built for | Homes valued near or below the federal lending limit | Higher-value California homes, up to $4 million |
| Counseling | Independent HUD-approved counseling before you can proceed, plus California’s seven-day period. A consumer protection, and a good one | |
Which column you belong in depends on your age, your home’s value, and what the money needs to do. That’s a fifteen-minute conversation with real numbers, not a form and a follow-up campaign.
The full HECM-versus-jumbo comparison → — every difference line by line, including where the non-recourse promise comes from on each and what changes for a non-borrowing spouse.
The California Reverse Mortgage Guide puts this whole page on paper: the honest costs, what happens for your heirs, the protections, and the situations where I’d tell you not to do one. Fifteen pages, emailed instantly from my own address.
The numbers and rules that decide most files
| Question | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum age, FHA HECM | 62 (the youngest borrower) | HUD HECM program rules (24 CFR Part 206) |
| Minimum age, proprietary jumbo | 55 for many California programs | Program-specific; varies by lender |
| 2026 HECM maximum claim amount | $1,249,125: one nationwide figure, for FHA case numbers assigned in 2026. Not a county-by-county limit, and homes worth more still qualify; it caps the value the HECM calculation uses. | HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 |
| Jumbo program ceiling | Home values to $4,000,000, calculated on actual value | Program-specific |
| Monthly principal & interest payment | None required while you live in the home as your primary residence and meet the obligations below | Loan terms; HUD (HECM) |
| Taxes, insurance, maintenance | Remain your responsibility. Failing them can make the loan due and payable; a set-aside can pay taxes and insurance automatically where cash flow is thin | Loan terms; HUD (HECM) |
| Counseling | Required before you proceed, with an independent HUD-approved agency of your choosing | 24 CFR Part 206; Cal. Civ. Code §1923.2 |
| California cooling-off period | Seven days after counseling before a lender may take your application | Cal. Civ. Code §1923.2 |
| Annuity or investment tie-in | Prohibited: no California reverse mortgage may be conditioned on buying an annuity or investment | Cal. Civ. Code §1923.2 |
| Non-recourse | Yes: neither you nor your heirs can owe more than the home’s value at repayment (on a HECM, FHA insurance covers any shortfall; on jumbo programs, it is written into the loan documents) | HUD (HECM); loan documents (jumbo) |
| Title | Stays in your name, or your trust’s. The lender holds a lien, as with any mortgage | Loan documents |
Figures verified at publication (August 2026). The HECM limit adjusts each January; program terms vary by lender and change without notice. Not an offer of terms.
Four jobs a reverse mortgage does well
Retire the mortgage payment
Pay off the existing loan and stop writing that check every month. For many households this alone changes retirement math more than any investment decision could.
Open a standby line of credit
Establish the line early and leave it alone. The unused HECM credit line grows over time: a reserve for care costs, market downturns, or simply peace of mind.
Buy the next home
HECM for Purchase: right-size into a single-story home or move closer to family, paying roughly half in cash and financing the rest with no required monthly payment.
Keep a low first mortgage
A second-lien reverse sits behind the loan you already have: you keep that rate and still reach your equity, with no payment on the new lien. Ages 55 and up. Your existing mortgage payment continues.
The unused credit line grows. A bank HELOC does not.
The unused portion of a HECM line of credit increases over time by contract, whether or not your home’s value rises, and it cannot be frozen the way a bank line can. This single feature is why financial planners changed their minds about reverse mortgages.
HECM vs. HELOC, compared in fullIn every case the borrower remains responsible for property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, and home maintenance.
Five steps, no surprises
California adds real consumer protections to this loan. Here’s the honest sequence, including the waiting period most websites skip.
The conversation
We talk through your situation and run actual numbers for your home. If a reverse mortgage is the wrong tool, this is where I tell you, and why.
Independent counseling
You meet with a HUD-approved counselor who doesn’t work for me or any lender. They confirm you understand the loan. Required, and rightly so.
California’s 7-day cooling-off period
After counseling, California law gives you seven days before the loan can move forward. No pressure is possible — the calendar forbids it.
Application & underwriting
Appraisal, documentation, and lender review. I handle the process and keep you informed at each stage. You deal with me, not a processing queue.
Closing & funding
Documents are signed, the rescission period runs, and funds are arranged the way you chose: payoff, lump sum, monthly draw, credit line, or a mix.
The questions everyone asks
Does the bank take my house?
What’s left for my kids?
My home is in a living trust. Is that a problem?
What does it cost?
Is this a scam? I’ve heard horror stories.
Is there a waiting period for a reverse mortgage in California?
Does a reverse mortgage affect Social Security, Medicare, or Medi-Cal?
Are you a reverse mortgage lender or a broker?
Independent resources, including the critical ones
I have an obvious interest in what you decide. These do not. Every link below goes to a government agency or a non-profit, none of them sell reverse mortgages, and at least one of them is openly skeptical of the product. Read them before you talk to anybody, including me.
- Reverse Mortgages — Is One Right for You? (RE 52) — the California Department of Real Estate’s own consumer booklet on the pros and cons. Also published in Spanish and in Chinese.
- Using the Services of a Mortgage Broker (RE 35A) — what a California broker is required to do for you, from the agency that licenses me.
- CANHR: Resource Guide to Reverse Mortgages — California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, an elder-advocacy non-profit. Their guide includes a suitability worksheet and a consumer alert, and their tone is cautious rather than promotional. That is precisely why it belongs on this page.
- HUD: Home Equity Conversion Mortgages for Consumers — the rules for the FHA program, from the agency that writes them.
- HUD-approved counselor locator — find your own counseling agency. You choose it, not me, and I receive nothing from whichever one you pick.
- HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 — the source for the 2026 HECM maximum claim amount cited throughout this site.
These are third-party resources. Ideal Financial, Inc. does not control them, is not affiliated with these organizations, and their inclusion here is not an endorsement of me by any of them.
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 →
Take the full guide home with you.
Everything on this page, and everything it doesn’t have room for, is in The California Reverse Mortgage Guide: the five myths corrected, the honest costs, what happens for your heirs, a page written for your adult children, and the situations where I’d tell you not to do one.
Fifteen pages, emailed to you as a PDF from my own address. No lists, no lead-selling, no follow-up campaign you didn’t ask for.
The rest of the reverse mortgage library
Each page below covers one decision in full, rather than a paragraph of it. Start wherever your question is.
Fifteen minutes. Real numbers. No pressure — the law and my reputation both forbid it.
Call me directly and we’ll find out together whether this tool fits your retirement. If it doesn’t, you’ll leave the call knowing why.
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