Having conducted over one hundred training sessions with fellow reverse mortgage professionals a common question is raised. Just how far should I go in following up with a potential borrower? Unfortunately many stop after one attempted phone call or if the prospect shows any signs of disinterest. This is tragic since the the majority of homeowners we contact are not ready to jump on board, sign the application and schedule counseling during our first encounter.
Continue readingThe New Longevity (Part 2): Turning Back The Hands of Time?
In the interim, the upcoming generation of reverse mortgage prospects is reinventing the concept of how and when to die. Just as Boomers have reinvented retirement from a time of withdrawal and relaxation to one of encore careers, they are reclaiming death from fear, pain, and suffering to a time of dignity and control.
Continue readingThe New Longevity (Part 1): Gender Roles and Work
While women have always earned less than men for comparable work, senior women experience sexism just as much if not more than their youthful counterparts — and a longer lifespan doesn’t balance this equation.
Continue readingAre You Speaking THEIR Language?
Imagine walking into your doctor’s office and he recommended two medications without asking you any questions or giving you a thorough exam? Would you trust them?
Continue readingMillennial Marketing: The Twelve Apostolates
While you probably care more about your business success in the next ten or twenty years than in the next two millennia, there’s still a “gospel truth” about sales that will ensure your business name will be remembered, now and in the future.
Continue readingU.S. Cities Aging Differently
With the rate at which the U.S. population is graying, it might seem that most cities and towns would have similar numbers of elder inhabitants, relative to their size. But this silver tsunami is not uniform.
Continue readingSeniors Do Have Choices to Reduce Risks
Are the risks to reverse mortgage borrowers a result of independent choices or a result of a the loan itself?
Continue readingAre You in Tune With Senior Style?
Do you know your prospect’s ‘buying style’? Here are some traps to avoid and ideas to shape more productive conversations.
Continue readingGeneration “U”: Unretired & Inspired
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Generation “U”: Unretired & Inspired…
and Reverse Mortgage-Ready!
Seniors Staying In The Workforce Longer
Workplace expert Lynn Taylor, who coined the term “Gen U” for Generation Unretired, believes today’s seniors and soon-to-be seniors represent a sea change for both business and the reverse mortgage industry. She says, “With the growing number of people seeking greater financial security to address longer life spans, Gen U will be highly receptive to financial incentives such as reverse mortgage, which will allow them to continue to thrive.”
The author of the workplace conflict resolution book, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job notes that Gen U will make up almost all the growth of the U.S. labor market over the next seven years. According to AARP, eight out of 10 of the 80 million Baby Boomers will work part- or full-time rather than retire.
“Gen U’s contributions reside not only in their skills sets garnered over many years, which can be passed onto Gen X, Gen Y, and Baby Boomers. They’ve also learned a thing or two about people skills -something often lost in today’s frenzied, high-tech workplace,” observes Taylor, who has watched this evolution from within corporate America and as a consultant over the past three decades.
Henry Alford, author of How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People, concurs with her assessment. “In general, the more technological a culture, the less the wisdom of elders is valued; in a world in which megabytes and artificial intelligence are the coin of the realm, skills like passing on traditions and providing cultural context are perceived to have diminished worth.”
But Taylor believes we err if we cast off the older generation.
“Because Gen U has the maturity of experience, they are often more adept at ‘humanizing the workplace.’ They’ve seen sandbox politics come and go and have witnessed that nice guys really don’t finish last. They are often the ‘anti-TOT’. That’s not to say that all of them make great bosses. But they can be a major asset to a more interpersonal, motivational workforce.”
Unretired Reverse Mortgage Prospects
This is also why a reverse mortgage may be key to helping Gen U workers thrive: remaining in the workforce, or reinventing themselves for an entirely new encore career, “presents an opportunity to re-apply their knowledge, pay off expenses, ‘give back,’ and feel a renewed sense of purpose,” says Taylor. While a sense of community can be created in a yoga class or golf game, for many mature workers, building something that directly impacts the livelihoods of others can be even more rewarding, she notes.
“This Gen-U-ine shift will become a win-win-win for companies, the reverse mortgage industry, and the unretired in the months and years ahead.”
Cash Burn or Last Resort? – Younger Reverse Mortgage Clients
AARP still calls it a ‘loan of last resort’. Will cash-burn by younger borrowers increase future defaults and foreclosures?
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