and Stephen Sacks that was published in the December 2021 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning. When asked about the significance of the white paper, Walker said, “It’s momentous for retirees, for the reverse mortgage industry and for the wealth management industry. For the retirees, it pulls a lot of risk from their existing retirement plan. And all of a sudden, the wealth management industry has a reason to engage us because, as we know, their responsibility isn’t just growing wealth; it’s reducing risk. We can do that on a level that hasn’t been discovered since modern portfolio theory was introduced in 1952. After all these years, we have a new fundamental in risk reduction.” Read the full interview at bit.ly/35uEvmw. Reverse Mortgages as Part of Overall Plan Another financial planning resource, WealthManagement. com, published an article that provided background information on reverse mortgages and offered insights from retirement expert Wade Pfau on potential applications as a financial planning tool. “If you can either just lower your withdrawal rate from your investments a little bit, or avoid distributions after a market downturn, that has such a huge positive impact on the subsequent portfolio value,” says Pfau. “That’s really the secret sauce of the reverse mortgage. You can’t look at the reverse mortgage in isolation, you need to consider its impact on the overall plan, and specifically the investment portfolio.” Read the full article at bit.ly/33TX8Qm. In Washington, they’re talking about ... Mandatory Use Date for FHA Catalyst Extended to 2023 The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) extended the mandatory use dates for mortgagees to submit appraisals for single-family forward and reverse mortgage endorsements through the FHA Catalyst: EAD Module. Details were published in Mortgagee Letter 2022-04 on February 15. Mortgagees should note the revised transition dates below: Effective on and after March 14, 2023, appraisal delivery through the FHA Catalyst: EAD Module is mandatory for all cases unless a previous appraisal version has been submitted to the legacy EAD portal. • For cases with a previous appraisal submission in the legacy EAD portal before March 14, 2023, appraisal resubmissions may continue to be delivered through the legacy EAD portal until April 17, 2023. • After April 17, 2023, appraisal submissions for all cases, regardless of previous submission status, must be delivered through the FHA Catalyst: EAD Module. Ginnie Mae Publishes LIBOR Index Transition Reference Guide Ginnie Mae published a LIBOR Index Transition Reference Guide to assist stakeholders in preparing for the transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate to a replacement index between now and the LIBOR cessation date of June 30, 2023. The guide included sections on the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program that summarized what has been done thus far to begin the transition process. The guide further noted, “A transition plan for legacy LIBOR HECM mortgage-backed securities (HMBS) is under analysis. No LIBOR transition policies with respect to legacy LIBOR HMBS have been released.” Access the reference guide at bit.ly/3skgaZp. HUD Issues HECM Exam Waiver The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a temporary waiver that allows reverse mortgage counselors who were required to take the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) exam last year, but couldn’t, to remain on the counselor roster. Counselors must take the HECM exam every three years, but the exam was unavailable for several weeks at the end of 2021 while HUD found a replacement vendor What’s News continued from page 9 10 REVERSE MORTGAGE / MAY- JUNE 2022
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