48 In this very first of its Ethics Advisory Opinion, issued by the Committee over four years ago, the Committee explained its rationale for placing ethical advertising requirements at the top of its Code of Ethics enforcement priorities for all NRMLA Members. It stated: Ethics Advisory Opinion 2008-01 (Ethical Advertising) addresses 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 market, advertise and make known to seniors the reverse mortgage loans and programs they offer to them. There is a 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. In this Ethics Advisory Opinion we refer to such practices, collectively, as “Unethical Advertising.” Unethical Advertising expressly violates the NRMLA Code of Ethics. (A complete copy of the Code of Ethics may be found at www.NRMLAOnline.org.) There is no place in NRMLA for NRMLA Members who engage in Unethical Advertising (emphasis added). To help provide specific guidance to NRMLA Members as to what the Code of Ethics required of them in the Ethical Advertising arena, Ethics Advisory Opinion 2008-01 described and listed six specific practices that the Committee determined violated the Code of Ethics, because they constituted Unethical Advertising, and thus effectively barred NRMLA Members from engaging in them upon pain of the loss of their NRMLA membership and/or the imposition of other sanctions available to the Committee for those who violate the Code of Ethics. That initial listing of the “dirty half-dozen” Unethical Advertising practices (each accompanied in the Ethics Advisory Opinion by examples of what not to do) included the following: First, it is a violation of the NRMLA Code of Ethics for a NRMLA Member to market or advertise its particular FHA-insured HEMC loan programs as “Government Loan Programs,” or as a “Government Benefit” or as “Government Supported” or as one from or offered by a “Government Loan Division” or as “Official Business” or as “Endorsed” or “Approved” by the Government, by the Federal Government, by HUD, by the FHA, by AARP, or by NRMLA. Second, it is a violation of the NRMLA Code of Ethics for a NRMLA Member directly or indirectly to state or suggest that a failure to respond to its marketing or advertising will or may result in a loss to the consumer of any consumer benefit to which the consumer is or may be entitled or enjoying. Third, it is a violation of the NRMLA Code of Ethics for a NRMLA Member to make misleading or unfair or exaggerated claims of benefits to consumers, particularly if coupled with inadequate (or with no) description of related costs or risks [citing as an example a claim that “We (the lender)” pay off your mortgage”]. Fourth, it is a violation of the NRMLA Code of Ethics for a NRMLA Member to provide or arrange for a testimonial or endorsement or infomercial that fails clearly to disclose the nature of the relationship (including, if applicable, that a payment had been made as part of the relationship) between the NRMLA Member and the person or entity providing the testimonial or endorsement or infomercial.
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