RM PR: The More People Learn, the Less Cynical They Become By Jenny Werwa, Director, Public Relations
Last week, while chatting with my neighbor, he looked at me seriously and asked, “What’s the deal with reverse mortgages? Are they a scam?”
Suddenly, I was standing on the sidewalk listing the benefits of these loans that have helped so many seniors to enjoy their retirement while living in their own home.
His response?
“I always figured I’d eventually leave my house to my daughter, but this is something worth considering. Thanks.”
I’m willing to bet that every person in our industry has had a similar conversation with their neighbor, friend or family member at least once since they became associated with reverse mortgages. Fortunately, the more people understand about reverse mortgages, the less cynical they become about their usefulness.
It’s this perfectly indirect correlation that drew me to the public relations job opening at NRMLA where the goal is clear: improve the reputation of the industry by educating more people about the product.
Soon after I accepted the job, I was presented with NRMLA’s PR plan, which had been approved by the Board of Directors and outlines a healthy framework for our external communications efforts. From the moment I set foot in the Washington office, I was on a path to implement the plan.
With the theme of “Help More People,” NRMLA is working to promote the benefits, safety and efficacy of reverse mortgages to the media, consumers and professionals who work with potential borrowers such as financial planners, elder law attorneys and Realtors. We’ll take a number of different approaches to reach these audiences, with the most comprehensive being our Reverse Mortgage Education Week to run in April 2016.
Information about Education Week and ways to get involved will be posted to NRMLA’s LinkedIn Group: linkedin.com/groups/National-Reverse-Mortgage-Lenders-Association-3792357.
NRMLA’s PR committee is also working to develop fact sheets and talking points that can help dispel common myths about reverse mortgages. We’ll use these myth-busting tools in response to inaccurate media coverage and make them available on our member site, nrmlaonline.org, and our consumer site, reversemortgage.org.
While no outreach can take the place of informative one-on-one conversations with potential borrowers, NRMLA is committed to strategically disseminating positive messages about the usefulness of reverse mortgages for older adults as they plan for and enjoy their retirement years.
On the Docket: Castro’s HUD Laser-Focused on Creating Opportunity
In a public celebration of the past and the future on Monday, July 27, the staff of the Department of Housing & Urban Development used the one-year anniversary of Secretary Julian Castro’s appointment to launch a report entitled “A Year of Progress: Building a Strong HUD for the Next 50 Years,” and to speak to stakeholders about its overarching goal of opening the gates of opportunity.
In a moving presentation featuring citizens who have benefited from HUD housing programs and senior staff, including a speech by the secretary, there was lucid commitment to improving lives by improving mobility and lessening the great disparity in access to good neighborhoods. Statistics presented showed that the opportunity for intergenerational mobility is lower now in the United States than in any of the other eight most industrialized nations, and that the opportunity for an African-American child to progress out of a bad neighborhood is less than half of that of a white child.
“Place matters,” was the event’s dominant mantra. “Opportunity in America should not be a luxury,” said Secretary Castro. “When we invest in people, we invest in our country’s future.”
In the Press: The Blog Squad in Action When negative or inaccurate news stories appear, NRMLA’s Blog Squad immediately responds. During the month of July, the Blog Squad responded to three articles.
On July 2, Blog Squadder and Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional Dan Hultquist, of Open Mortgage, commented on a piece published in the Huffington Post to clarify that reverse mortgage borrowers can in fact take the mortgage interest deduction for any interest paid on their loan.
When Yahoo! Finance and dailyfinace.com re-ran a column from MoneyTalksNews that lists reverse mortgages among its 9 Dumb Ways to Borrow Money, the Blog Squad responded with the facts. Celink’s Mary Katherine Quasarano wrote:
“Reverse mortgage industry professionals have worked vigorously alongside HUD, and in response to CFPB comments, to refine the HECM product and further protect its borrowers. HECM reverse mortgages have always included borrower protection safeguards and the HECM reverse mortgage product promoted today has rigorous consumer protections including housing counseling, a financial assessment requirement to ensure that borrowers can afford the loan, and a right of rescission after loan signature. Reverse mortgages are a safe retirement funding tool whose benefits continue to be miscommunicated and misunderstood because of misinformation like this article.”
Quasarano also commented on a positive bankrate.com Retirement Blog post that features an interview with Peter Bell to applaud the author for her unbiased reporting. “The caring, empathic and ethical professionals in the reverse mortgage industry thank you for sharing a fact-based, informative story,” wrote Quasarano.
If you’d like to join us in our effort to promote the facts about reverse mortgages as a member of NRMLA’s Blog Squad, please email Jenny Werwa at [email protected].
On the Web: Introducing the New nrmlaonline.org Nrmlaonline.org has undergone a complete makeover.
In addition to being more visually attractive, the informational resources that are provided for your benefit—industry news, statistics, regulations, legislation (state and federal) and back issues of Reverse Mortgage magazine and electronic communications—have been organized in a more user-friendly way.
As members, please explore the site and offer recommendations on further enhancements. Members must log in with a username and password to access some of the material, just like on the old site. On some browsers, when submitting your username and password, you may be required to verify this information a second time.
Traffic to Consumer Site Averaging 33K Midway through 2015 traffic to NRMLA’s consumer site, reversemortgage.org, averaged 33,141 unique visits—a 20 percent rise from last year. Monthly site visits averaged 28,259 visits in 2014 and 19,561 visits in 2013. A record 36,249 unique visitors utilized the site in January.
New Members
NRMLA welcomes the following new members:
- 1st Choice Mortgage Company, Meridian, Idaho
- Brick Road Mortgage, Lakeville, Massachusetts
- Reverse Mortgage Corporation, Reisterstown, Maryland
- SecurityNational Mortgage Company, Cottonwood Heights, Utah
- Skyline Home Loans, Calabasas, California
