Financial planner shares advice to reverse mortgage professionals on getting referrals

Reverse Mortgage Professionals understand the need to build an extensive roster of potential referral partners from a multitude of different professions, but one class of professionals that has garnered a lot of interest over the past couple of years are planners. financial. As the pool of reverse mortgage borrowers has grown to encompass a wider range of real estate values ​​and ‘wealthy home’ clients, financial advisors open to exploring the possibilities of reverse mortgages can potentially offer a positive and sustained path to more reverse mortgage business.

One such financial advisor who took the time to learn and understand the potential flexibility that can be offered to clients through a reverse mortgage is Robert Klein, Founder and President of the Retirement Income Center in Newport Beach, Calif. . In a recent episode of The RMD Podcast now available for listening, Klein offers thoughts on what reverse mortgage professionals can do to encourage benchmark partnerships between other financial planners and how the industry is performing in terms of education and awareness.

Advice for Reverse Mortgage Professionals: Interacting with the Planning Community

For reverse mortgage professionals looking to partner with financial planners, networking with a wide variety of planners designations can make all the difference in finding the right planner for the right job in terms of reverse mortgage prospects, explains. Klein.

“I just think [reverse mortgage professionals] need to network with financial planners, be it CPA, CFP, RICP, by whatever means is convenient for you, ”says Klein. “Contact them, talk to them, attend conferences that financial advisors attend. Not that we’ve had any opportunities recently, it’s something that’s obviously been affected [by the pandemic] However, it will eventually open up.

For many reverse mortgage professionals who don’t know how to approach such financial planners, Klein says asking itself can be powerful. The many people who do not ask for advice or referrals from a planner will never know if such a relationship can prove to be successful. Therefore, asking and getting known among planners can make all the difference. It also goes both ways in terms of the relationships Klein has developed with the reverse mortgage professionals themselves.

“Just reach out,” he says. “I’ve reached out to people in the reverse mortgage industry, various people I’ve researched, and industry experts. I have had mutually beneficial relationships with these people and have learned a great deal about [the product]. So I think it’s about reaching out to people you see who are interested in the business, preferably. And then, it’s enough to open the eyes of other advisors who might not be so obvious that they are interested in the reverse mortgage industry.

Starting from the idea that a reverse mortgage can add value to the services that the planner is already providing to a client can be very important, as approaching in the context of value added services can help highlight the opportunities to exercise greater preservation capacity on a client’s assets.

“[Allowing planners to learn] this [a reverse mortgage is] certainly an added value in that you can interact with and educate a financial advisor as not everyone is aware of the need for this service that clients [may have]

Educational awareness of the industry

If there is one thing the reverse mortgage industry seems to focus heavily on when discussing the past year of business and the year ahead, it is to expand educational practices and availability of relevant reverse mortgage material to as many potentially receptive people as possible.

In cases where a client may be turned off by a reverse mortgage prospect, Klein observes that some of these scenarios have been linked to informative presentations that can too often be driven by sales alone, he says.

“I think the industry is doing a great job of getting the message out,” Klein says. “I often think, when [clients] have reservations about reverse mortgages, sometimes it has to do with sales presentations that turn them off – for whatever reason – by a mortgage company. So as long as it can be a team effort, and when I work with clients from a holistic planning approach, I can show them how reverse mortgages fit into their situation like no other. anything else: what you can plug into their situation and show how it applies directly, how it might benefit them and what the downsides are.

Such framing of reverse mortgage potential can go a long way in illustrating the impact a reverse mortgage could have, Klein says, and go beyond the sales cycle to connect with the potential benefits that a suitable client can have. feel if it is exploring a reverse market. The mortgage option can make all the difference, he says.

“I think this helps a lot when the time comes to meet someone from the reverse mortgage industry,” he says. “It’s not just a sales pitch for them – not that all reverse mortgage presentations are sales focused – but there is a lot of great training that I have seen from professionals at. industry. But I think, again, that when it’s tied into an existing holistic plan that you have with a client, it just solidifies the whole process and the lights come on for clients.

Listen to the latest episode of The RMD Podcast for the full discussion with Robert Klein.