By
Larry Melton
•
October 15, 2026
This article will take a couple of different roads, but hopefully it will end on something that makes sense and is helpful. Let's start with this: I’m 63 years old. When my grandfather was 63 years old he was ancient. He was a grandpa. He dressed old, he acted old, so to us he was old. He wore the cardigan, sat in the recliner with his name basically engraved on it, and had a candy dish nobody was allowed to touch except him.
When my father was 55 he seemed old to me and I was about 30 at that time. Sadly, my father passed away at 60. Even though I knew that was young to pass away, in my head he'd still had a relatively full life. He had two grown sons and four grandchildren.
Now, I'm 63 years old and still don't feel any different than I did 25 or 30 years ago. I golf, workout, paddle board, play pickleball with my 59-year-old wife, and swim with my two adult daughters when we go on a family trip. Granted, the morning after walking 18 holes of golf feels a little more like an injury report than it used to, and I've become one of those guys who gets out of bed in the morning very carefully. But I'll take creaky knees over a candy dish any day.
The way we think about aging has changed. And if our definition of “old” is outdated, some of the financial assumptions we attach to aging may be outdated, too.
That brings me to reverse mortgages.
I’m in the reverse mortgage business. For years, that has basically meant I specialize in loans for 'old people.'
Except there’s a problem with that description: reverse mortgages aren’t necessarily just for people we would consider old anymore.
Depending on the type of reverse mortgage, options may be available to homeowners younger than the traditional age associated with these loans. The federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) has its own eligibility requirements, while some proprietary reverse mortgage products may be available to younger borrowers.
More importantly, the way people use and think about home equity is changing.
A reverse mortgage allows an eligible homeowner to access a portion of their home equity without making traditional monthly principal and interest mortgage payments. The loan generally becomes due when the borrower sells the home, permanently moves out, or passes away, provided the borrower continues meeting the loan requirements, including paying property taxes, homeowners insurance, and maintaining the home.
That makes a reverse mortgage something worth understanding as part of a broader conversation about retirement, home equity, and financial planning.
No, I’m not a financial planner. But I work with financial professionals, and reverse mortgages have increasingly become part of the conversations people are having about how their home fits into their overall financial picture.
It's a strange thing, aging today. Somewhere along the way the whole timeline got pushed back. Forty is the new 30. Sixty is the new 45. I half expect that by the time I'm 80 someone will tell me I'm basically still in my prime, just ‘experienced.’ I see 90-year-olds on the news skydiving or finishing marathons and think, that used to be a headline because it was rare, now it's basically a Tuesday.
Part of it, I think, is that we just refuse to dress the part anymore. My grandfather wore ‘old man clothes.’ I don't think I own a single item of clothing that would have qualified as old man clothes in his era, and I'm the same age now that he was in the picture of him in my head. We wear the same sneakers our kids wear. We listen to some of the same music, even if we sneak back to the classics when nobody's watching. We got the memo that acting your age is optional, and most of us in my generation threw that memo straight in the recycling bin.
But while our lifestyles have changed, so have the financial realities surrounding retirement.
Housing costs, taxes, insurance, healthcare, inflation, and longer retirements all affect the financial decisions people make as they get older. At the same time, many homeowners have accumulated significant equity in their homes.
For generations, the goal was straightforward: pay off the house, burn the mortgage, and never touch that piece of real estate again.
Today, more homeowners are asking a different question:
How does my home equity fit into the rest of my retirement plan?
A reverse mortgage can be one possible answer. It won’t be the right answer for everyone, but dismissing it because of what the product looked like or how it was perceived decades ago can mean overlooking an option worth considering.
If you are a mortgage professional, you should understand how reverse mortgages work or partner with someone who does. If you are a financial professional, the same applies.
I still talk with professionals who shrug off reverse mortgages because of old beliefs about who uses them, why they use them, or how the loans work.
That’s a problem.
Our job as professionals isn’t to decide that a financial option is outdated before the client has had a chance to understand it. It’s to make sure clients have accurate, current information so they can evaluate the choices available to them.
That doesn’t mean recommending a reverse mortgage to everyone. It means knowing enough about the product to recognize when it may be worth exploring and knowing who to bring into the conversation when it is.
Because if your clients are asking questions about their home equity and you can’t help them find answers, there’s a good chance they’ll find those answers somewhere else.
Things change in our world. We still listen to music, but not on an 8-track player. Phones don’t have cords attached to the wall. TVs don’t come in 500-pound wooden consoles.
And reverse mortgages aren’t just loans for 'old people.' They are financial products that eligible homeowners can evaluate alongside other options for using home equity during retirement.
The important word there is option.
A reverse mortgage isn’t right for everyone. But understanding how today’s reverse mortgages work, who may qualify, and where they could fit into a homeowner’s broader financial strategy gives professionals and consumers another tool to consider.
Turns out, getting older isn’t what it used to be.
Neither is the mortgage on your house.
