The RMD Podcast #24: Robert Klein, Financial Planner and Retirement Specialist
With financial planners serving as some of the most important potential reverse mortgage referral partners, this episode of The RMD Podcast features a conversation between RMD editor Chris Clow and Robert Klein, a registered investment advisor in Newport Beach, California, and founder of the Retirement Income Center where he specializes in a multidisciplinary retirement planning approach.
In the conversation, Clow and Klein discuss the state of reverse mortgage product education to borrowers and professionals, the reticence many financial planners have about discussing reverse mortgages with clients, and advice to reverse mortgage originators about approaching financial planners to serve as referral partners.
Here’s a short preview of the interview you can find in the episode, lightly edited for concision and clarity:
Chris Clow: What do you make of the attitudes of other financial planners regarding reverse mortgages, particularly when it comes to the barriers that they think exists from broker dealers and separately to those who just generally have a negative attitude about them?
Robert Klein: To me, it’s nothing new. It’s comparable and analogous to financial advisors, a lot of them, and their attitudes towards fixed income annuities. It comes down in a lot of cases to lack of education, that’s the basic thing about whether it’s fixed income annuities or reverse mortgages. […] You only have so much time in the day, and people like to focus on certain things. However, having said that, a lot of the things that we focus on are client-driven, and so to the extent that clients are coming into your office, and they’re talking about this more and more now, it behooves financial advisors to get up to speed on [reverse mortgages] and expand their horizons.
The RMD Podcast speaks with reverse mortgage business leaders, professionals, government officials, and thought leaders to provide listeners with the pulse of the reverse mortgage industry, and all of the business and regulatory realities which affect it. Hosted By Chris Clow and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.