Reverse mortgages are the new financial miracle cure-all; they can replace the kitchen sink, they buy the cruise tickets, they put new tires on the car, they pay for mistakes you've made in your retirement planning, heck, they can put a big screen on your bedroom wall. While you're at it, have it balance your checkbook, do your estate planning, find a local caregiver, make your mortgage payment disappear. They cost too much, they don't cost anything, they help, they hurt, you keep your home, you lose your home. We're employing a bit of cynicism her but it's all really overwhelming if you read more than one resource about them, everyone, even a hairdresser in Maryland, has an opinion on them. They will do quite a bit for the over 62 year old homeowner if applied properly but they should be considered carefully before proceeding as with any financial vehicle.

We track reverse mortgage opinion because we care about the product and believe there's more misinformation than there is good information and we've often said that reverse mortgages are not for everyone. Whether you qualify for them or not, not everyone over 62 is in a situation that can find them benefiting from a reverse mortgage. Some folks have more than sufficient monthly cash flow with no bills or their heirs are dependent upon significant portions of home equity that would be put at risk with a reverse mortgage. Some folks don't plan on staying in their current homes long enough to warrant losing the costs for conversion and some may be too young and too far behind to let a reverse mortgage provide them with enough cash to make it to their expected end of life.

Bill Losey, a published Certified Financial Planner and author of "Retirement Intelligence" blogspot says the following:

"Too many of us keep the bar low by playing "to not lose" instead of playing to win because we assume that life has guarantees when in reality it doesn't. Because of that one assumption, we've become complacent and dependent on guarantees. That dependency builds expectations that create comfort zones that are below our full potential and prevent us from making our greatest impact.

Our previous article spoke about end of life and how young, (some seniors) think they are and the complaceny Mr. Losey alludes to above. Its really amazing that in a glass-half-empty world there are quite a few glass-half-full Seniors out there that are beating the odds. They are 75 living in 60 year old bodies, taking every punch thrown at them and experiencing as much in the last quarter of their lives than they did in the previous 3. They have planned according to professional advice, have saved what they believed to be enough. They bought long term care in their 50?s and have a strong life insurance plan. They're set financially so they hope to also be set physically.

That particular portion of the population makes up between 20 and 50% of the country. How about the other 50 to 80%? What they don't know can hurt them- a very well written piece by Donald Jay Korn in Financial-Planning shares some details that are quite amazing when it comes to planning and maybe waiting too late to do so to protect the physical nature of things. According to the article, the average age of those purchasing long term care is now 58, down from 67 in 2000 and what is shocking about those statistics is that at 65, 30% of long term care participants are rejected and by 75, 50% were rejected. You want to get in early if you want to make sure you are both eligible and covered. The average need for long term care lasts between 24 to 36 months, and of the estimated 8 million long term care clients registered in 2008, 180,000 received long term care benefits- just over 2% of those eligible.

Reverse mortgages don't really have much to do with those stats other than bringing to light being able to afford life, caring for oneself and protecting one's investments in property and self. Since the age to increase your chances of qualifying for long term care are younger than the minimum age for a reverse mortgage, its clear the reverse mortgage should not be used to purchase the long term care but as the Financial-Planning article goes on to say below, a reverse mortgage could possibly allow for continued coverage once the client sees the need for both cash flow and the added health coverage:

"Indeed, clients probably should avoid canceling an older LTCI policy whenever possible. "Although there may be a need to reduce expenses as a result of the current economic downturn, maintaining these policies is important," Ludden says. "The cost of this coverage is age- and health-based; therefore, it may be very difficult to find an affordable policy in the future if a previously purchased policy has lapsed."

A reverse mortgage will not cure all that ails you but considering it as part of your financial and retirement planning will give you more options than you had been previously aware of.