Reverse Mortgage magazine Nov-Dec 2020

husband had finished signing the thick stack of docu- ments. His wife would stop after a few pages to rub her hand because of the pain the signatures were causing. Having come from a real estate deal where electronic signing was used throughout with DocuSign, Harmes Hika started pursuing the use of electronic signatures in all her reverse deals. She now offers clients the option of physical or electronic signatures. For paper documents, she will print out a packet and highlight every field that needs to be signed and send it through the mail. “Leave it up to them,” Harmes Hika says. Lenders often are surprised to learn that their clients either have experience with electronic signing or they are eager to learn. For documents that must be wet signed, she will give them the option of getting those in the mail so they can send them back or email the documents to them. That way, the client can print out the paperwork, scan it and then send it back through secure email, she says. “I think there is a huge misconception that seniors won’t learn new information,” Harmes Hika says. “And that is just absolutely not true. It just isn’t. I think that is more in the loan officer’s mind.” For people who are 85 and older, computers might be more of a challenge, she acknowledges. “But it is not the majority,” she says. “And what I have found with our loan officers is that they think it is the majority, so they operate as if it is. You have to ask ques- tions; you have to assess the client in front of you.” Last year, AARP conducted a survey of people 50 and older who were asked about their technology habits. More than half, or 51 percent, said they bought a tech product in the previous year, with a smartphone topping the list at 23 percent, followed by a laptop at 12 percent. AARP also reported that the generation gap in the usage of smart- phones was narrowing, with smartphone adoption jump- ing from 70 percent to 77 percent among older adults in Up Your Tech Game continued on page 24 REVERSE MORTGAGE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020 23