The three earlier Ethics Advisory Opinions rely on and cite to a series of Values and Rules described in the NRMLA Code of Ethics that address what Ethics Advisory Opinion 2008‐01 characterized as a very important aspect of the relationship between NRMLA Members and the seniors whose interests they are pledged to serve: the manner in which NRMLA Members make, advertise and make known to seniors the reverse mortgage loans and programs they offer to them. These Ethics Advisory Opinions noted the growing concern among seniors and their advocates and legislators, and among NRMLA Members and NRMLA itself, that some NRMLA Members are engaging , participating, or tolerating marketing and advertising practices that are false, misleading, deceptive or unfair‐‐referred to in that Opinion, collectively, as "Unethical Advertising." These earlier Ethics Advisory Opinions made clear and declared that "Unethical Advertising expressly violates the NRMLA Codes of Ethics," and added: "There is no place in NRMLA for NRMLA Members who engage in Unethical Advertising." As described in its Policies and Procedures (Appendix A to the NRLMA Code of Ethics), the Committee is permitted to impose sanctions upon (and has so disciplined) NRMLA Members determined by the Committee to have engaged in Unethical Advertising in violation of the requirements of the NRMLA Code of Ethics and its Ethics Advisory Opinions, including by placing such NRMLA Members on Probation, Suspending their NRMLA Membership, and Withdrawing their NRMLA Membership (collectively, the Committee's NRMLA Membership Sanctions). The Committee, upon following certain Additional Safeguards further described in the Policies and Procedures, also may, itself, publicly indentify such NRMLA Members and the conduct that resulted in the imposition by NRMLA of such sanctions upon them (in Committee parlance, "Naming the Respondent"), and the Committee may and has referred NRMLA Members and non‐Members to law enforcement authorities (including but not limited to HUD, the Federal Trade Commission and Attorneys General) for appropriate action by them (the Committee's Outside Referral Option). Relying on these same Values and Rules in the NRMLA Code of Ethics, and building upon the guidance provided through its Ethics Advisory Opinions 2008‐1, 2009‐2 and 2010‐2, the Committee has decided to go further, by capitalizing upon the willingness of the members of the NRMLA Wholesale Lenders Council (further described below) to work cooperatively with it 42
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