May-June2020 Issue

Moving Forward Answers to Tough Questions Create Action A Gap Exists in the Desire and the Ability to Age in Place By Steve Irwin, President, NRMLA “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.” — the late Jack Welch, former CEO and author I KEEP FINDING MYSELF referencing the paper recently published by the distinguished team at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College this past January called “Are Homeownership Patterns Stable Enough to Tap Home Equity?” The findings from this research are extremely compelling: • The research showed that 70 percent of households have very stable homeownership patterns, even over several decades. They either stay in the home they own in their 50s—53 percent—or purchase a new home around retirement and stay in it for the rest of their life—17 percent; • The 30 percent of households that do move consist of two distinct subgroups. Frequent movers—14 per- cent—appear to face labor-market challenges. Late movers—16 percent—look like a slightly more afflu- ent version of the households that never move. But then they face a health shock that forces them out of the home and into a rental unit or into a facility for long-term services and supports; and • Overall, the findings largely support the narrative from prior research that most people want to age in place and move only in response to a shock. Yes, globally, the aging population wants to age in place, but the harsh realities of the various social, economic and demographic trends force us to realize there is an ever-in- creasing gap between a person’s abil- ity to meet the financial and social support needs of successfully aging in place and that person’s desire to age in place. I would suggest that filling this gap through responsible equity extraction is the central tenet to our industry’s business strategies. It helps to answer central questions: • Whom do we want to serve? • What’s our agenda? • Where are we going? • Why do we exist? The answers to these questions define our cause as an industry. These answers create the actions within our member institutions to have their disparate teams coalesce around a singular vision. It binds the counselor commu- nity and the file-intake teams, as well as the processors, underwriters, appraisal reviewers, quality-control teams and document drawers. It directs partner firms’ technol- ogy platforms, title companies’ teams and outside coun- sel’s advice. It drives servicing operations and servicing oversite teams. Filling the gap between the desire to age in place and the economic challenges to age in place helps create our vision and is the catalyst for our drive to see that vision through to completion. Steve Irwin REVERSE MORTGAGE / MAY-JUNE 2020 5