Certified Financial Planner and Times Herald contributor Al Benelli recently wrote about the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s warning earlier this year about reverse mortgages. Benelli feels that the strong warning makes him wonder if the regulator of the securities industry had more up its sleeve.
FINRA’s announcement was meant to warn investors to be aware of individuals who propose reverse mortgages to fund a particular investment. “We believe these (reverse mortgages) are being promoted more and more and investors need to understand what they’re purchasing,” said John Gannon, FINRA’s senior vice president for investor education in Washington.
Many people in the reverse mortgage industry felt the announcement was entirely one sided and did more to scare investors rather than inform. You can read one RMD readers reaction here.
Being a financial planner, Benelli is able to provide some more insight into the announcement and gets some reactions from other people in his industry. One financial planner felt that issuing warning runs the risk of doing as much harm as good. While the piece might be a few months after the FINRA announcement, it’s interesting to get other financial planners reactions to the alert.
