Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast

Reverse Mortgages Demystified With Kevin Guttman

• Helperly, Caleb Richardson • Season 4 • Episode 12

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Most retirees don’t run out of love for life—they run out of cash flow. We sit down with Kevin Guttman, one of just 218 certified reverse mortgage professionals in the U.S., to unpack how today’s FHA‑backed reverse mortgages actually work, who they help, and why their reputation hasn’t caught up with reality. Kevin brings more than two decades of lending experience, nonprofit roots, and a people‑first approach to a topic crowded with myths and fear.

We walk through the modern safeguards that protect seniors—HUD counseling, non‑recourse rules, transparent fees—and explain the biggest misconceptions: you keep title, you can’t outlive the loan, and heirs still decide whether to sell or refinance. Kevin breaks the product into three clear use cases: making mortgage payments optional, accessing a flexible line of credit to handle rising costs or pay off debt, and purchasing a right‑sized home after 62 without taking on a monthly payment. Along the way, he shares powerful client stories, from a widow staying securely in place to an 84‑year‑old trading credit‑card groceries for peace of mind.

If you or a parent is weighing medical expenses, shrinking income, and a house full of locked equity, this conversation offers a practical framework. Learn how reverse mortgage proceeds interact with taxes, why most borrowers access roughly 35–45 percent of value, and how planning with life insurance and long‑term care riders can improve outcomes for heirs. Kevin also points to trusted resources—his consumer guide and short explainer videos—so you can learn privately before you decide.

Subscribe for more clear, human conversations on senior care and financial choices. If this helped you, share it with a family member and leave a review telling us what you still want to know.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to Senior Care Academy. Today's guest is Kevin Gutman. Kevin is a senior mortgage broker, reverse mortgage specialist, and a three-time Amazon best-selling author with over 20 years of experience. He's one of just 218 certified reverse mortgage professionals nationwide, which is awesome. He's known for his integrity, his transparency, and his people for first approach. He has over 105-star reviews and an A plus BBB rating. Kevin helps senior homeowners make confident and informed financial choices. And then outside of work, he's a lifelong learner. He has three master's degrees, and he's an avid Lakers fan, world traveler, and dedicated community volunteer. So I'm grateful to have you on. Excited to chat, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01:

Good to see you. Thanks for having me today.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. First, I kind of want to ask what got you into mortgages and then reverse mortgages being one of 218 out of literally tens of thousands of mortgage officers, being able to do reverse mortgages is really cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You know, I grew up on a real estate home. My dad was a real-term investor. He actually trained new agents. So from the time I was a little guy, I was learning about real estate. And I spent the first 12 years of my career working for a nonprofit. I used to travel around the country and around the world, raise money for people in the developing world to have clean water, medical clinics, schools, small business loans. It was really great. However, my wife and I have five children. I just needed to be home where I was traveling about half the time. And so I just kind of thought, well, I'm good at math. I like helping people solving problems. And so I got into the mortgage industry. And what I like about reverse mortgages is uh they really change people's lives. I guess all mortgages do because people who who own real estate have a 44 times higher net worth than people that don't. But when they get older, a lot of times they don't have enough money. So tapping into the equity in their home actually allows them to live the lifestyle they dreamed of and worked for their whole life.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think that's really cool. And reverse mortgages for a long time, I think, have a pretty bad rap. And you've now at this point you've helped countless seniors navigate one of the biggest financial decisions of their life, which is a reverse mortgage. And you love the Lakers, so I'm curious if you have a fun little analogy. But if you if a reverse mortgage were like a play in basketball, what would it be? Is it a pick and roll? Is it full court press? How would you define it?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, for the right person, it's really a slam dunk. And the reason I say that is because um I'd say 90% of people don't have enough money. Uh Fidelity just came out with a study saying a 65-year-old couple is going to need$172,000 to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs in retirement. The average retirement lasts 18 years. Financial planners say to plan on 30 because baby boomers are younger, they're living longer, healthier. So I'd say it's a slam dunk for the right person. It's not for everybody, but for the right person that can really change their life.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's an interesting statistic out there. I think it's like over 60% of all medical expenses you'll pay for in your entire life happen after 65. So and then the average lifespan in the US right now is 77. So in the last 12 years of your life, you're spending over half of everything that you'll spend on medical. It's a it's an expensive kind of time, it can be an expensive time of life. Um you've said that your mission is to simplify the home loan process for seniors. Um is there a piece of mortgage jargon, or specifically maybe um reverse mortgage jargon that you wish you could just get rid of because it's confusing people and not actually helpful.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I thought about this um question. What I see on the traditional side is people chase the rate. You know, rates come down and they refinance. And what they're doing is they're resetting the clock every time they're refining the clock.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, when we uh bought our house, they said it's like the date the rate thing or whatever. It's like the rate is high right now, but you can just refinance whenever you want. And yeah, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

But when it becomes cyclical, when you're doing it every few years, you're not really getting ahead. So that's one thing on the traditional side. On the other side, with reverse mortgages, I think what I find is it's important for people just to be open to learn. You mentioned at the beginning how the programs evolved and changed over the years, gotten safer for seniors. And when people actually sit down and learn about it, the number one reaction is, okay, what's the catch? This sounds too good to be true. Because they're believing all these myths on the internet that are not true anymore, or they're believing people like Dave Ramsey and Susie Ormon, who aren't licensed and don't originate mortgages and really don't understand them. And so I'd say do your own research, do your own home, or be open to learn about and see if it could be something that could help you.

SPEAKER_00:

What is the biggest thing that's changed? My understanding of reverse mortgages, they used to have a deadline, right? Like you have a reverse mortgage, and then if you lived 10 years after 10 years, they're like, well, your loan is up, and they kicked. Is that the biggest thing that's changed? Or what's what's the biggest hurdle that you have to overcome typically when talking to people about reverse mortgages to help get rid of their fear?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So these are loans for primary homes. People have to be at least 62. They have to maintain it, pay the property taxes, insurance on time. If they do that, the term of the loan, get ready for this, 150 years of the youngest bone. Oh my gosh. In other words, you can't outlive it, and people don't live in the biggest myth I hear over and over every day is okay, I know I've got to sign my house over to the to the lender. That's not true. It's just like a regular mortgage. So, like with any mortgage, you're untitled, you have a lien against your home. Same thing with the reverse mortgage. The difference is there's no payment required with a reverse mortgage. Payment's optional, you can make a payment if you choose to, but you don't have to. And then, second, it's a non-recourse loan. What that means is so every mortgage we've ever had in our lives up to a reverse mortgage time period, is what we're personally liable for. If we miss the payment, we get a phone call. Hey, where's the money? What happened? With a reverse mortgage, that doesn't happen because there's no payment required. It's a non-recourse loan, which means the only way the lender gets paid back is at the end when the last person moves out permanently through the sale or refinance of the home. So people say, I signed my house over, and the reason that is even a thing is from 1961 to 1988, these loans were not regulated. So that did happen. People did lose their homes, people did sign their house over to the lender, but it hasn't been that way for 37 years.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's interesting. So now, um, yeah, nobody can outlive that term. And then basically it's not, I think that's something I just learned. I thought that it was that the bank in essence owned your house, and then once you passed, it's like, okay, it's ours. But it's to the point where if I'm a if my mom gets a reverse mortgage then and lives for 20 more years, and then um at the end of it, I can go and say, I would like to purchase this house, or can we refinance it into my name? And all of a sudden it's a traditional mortgage again that I'm paying down. Um, but I get it, in essence, first writer refute, I begin to say, okay, let's this is what we want to do with the house. Um and then with that, where the bank owns it, or not owns it, but in this sense too, if my mom said I don't want to buy the house, but there is a hundred thousand dollars in equity, I'm still able to sell it as our next of kin and and recoup that equity. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot more like a lot more friendly than that little couple decade period that everybody's like, oh, that's what it is. And it's like, no, it's not.

SPEAKER_01:

And what's happened over the years is the government, it's a government-backed loan, FHA backed, overseen by HUD. Um, it's just gotten safer over the years. There's so many safeguards built into it because seniors are a vulnerable population and the government doesn't want them taken advantage of. So all the fees are transparent, they're set by the federal government or by state governments, they have to do third-party counseling with an independent counselor. Um, you know, you used to see the loan paperwork stack, they have to sign as a big stack. Um, and all of it's to protect the senior. The other thing is they we we look for um that somebody's not being taken advantage of. Because a lot of times, sadly, it's a family member who's taking advantage of a senior to get their equity. So there's lots of safeguards built in to protect them.

SPEAKER_00:

What speaking of families, do you ever run into it where um like how often is their adult children involved? And do you have to overcome being like, well, that's my like inheritance? I don't know. Like, I don't there are some people that are potentially greedy and like I want to have the$500,000 in equity when mom passes and not$20,000 because$480,000 has been spent on her living, you know? Is that a thing or not really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a good question. Um, I've I've never had a um family member say that. I've never heard that.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But I have a friend who uses this analogy, he's in the business too, and he he's he heard a grandchild complaining that grandma had um he got a reverse mortgage and used up some of her equity. And he said, Well, let me ask you this. Did grandma have a 401k? Yeah. What happened to that? Oh, she spent it all. Okay. So was she able to come live with you? No. Were you able to support her? No. Okay, so grandma didn't have a lot of options. She had to tap into her equity to be able to live, right? Prices are going up. The number one fear a senior has is outliving their money. And so the all this does is, you know, we all have three buckets of money we draw from, right? There's investments, assets, wages. And when you're retired, your wages are really your your pension or your social security. Um and then assets aren't liquid, right? Real estate isn't liquid. The only way we can access our equity is three ways sell our house, pay the six percent to the realtors, uh, do a cash out refinance or a home equity line of credit, have a mandatory payment, or do a reverse mortgage, access some equity, and not have a monthly payment. So that's why I say for the right person that's a slam dunk, when they truly understand how it works. Um, I had a lady one time say, Well, I want to be sure there's going to be equity left for my kids. Well, you're only really able to borrow 35 to 45 percent. So there's almost always equity at the end to be sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Especially if they if they sell it or refinance, there's plenty. And 45 percent of the median house these days is still hundreds of thousands. And if you live within means, it's a decade of expenses almost, you know. So um so you grew up in real estate, we talked about how you have three different master's degrees, which I think is super cool. Um what's something that school wasn't able to teach you uh um about the mortgage world or maybe the world in general that you've been able to learn throughout your career and your experience?

SPEAKER_01:

I think the biggest surprise to me has been um people don't have a grid or framework to make financial decisions. And and I'm always so surprised that it's almost like everybody's kind of winging it, you know, like you know what I mean? Like there's not a lot of planning. And I'm not saying everybody's that way, but I'm just saying I think the majority of people really struggle with making financial decisions and making good financial decisions. So what I tell people, like, let's take somebody I'll I'll tell you about a client of mine that technically didn't need a reverse mortgage. They have money, their house is paid off, they have no debt. And I said, Well, what about a safety net? You know, you've lived long enough to see that life can hit you upside the head. What if you have a safety net? Or what if you start giving away some of your wealth while you're alive to your family, to your charities that you love, and and you can see the good that it's doing while you're here. You can maybe give some guidance to your kids or grandkids while they're here or help them buy a house, down payment for a house, etc. So they actually did that, and they ended up with more money because what they did is they they didn't have long-term care insurance, which only 12% of people have, two-thirds of people are gonna need it. And it's expensive, as you know. But they took that money and they bought a life insurance policy with a long-term care rider. So at the end, the kids, the heirs ended up with more money because, as you know, life insurance proceeds aren't taxable, nor reverse mortgage proceeds. So more money is going to the heirs, they're accessing the money that's locked up in their home equity to help the velocity of the money idea to help the kids or the charities while they're still here. And everybody wins. The the homeowner wins, the heirs win, the charities win, and at the end there's more money. So it that's why I'm saying learn about it, understand it, because it can be a tool in your toolbox that can actually help you do more for your family and charities.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's an awesome story about how it turned out more. Um, you've done so many like hundreds of seniors in their family. So, what's that's one story that stuck with you of like somebody that didn't quote unquote need it but ended up being better in the long run. Is there another story um that has really stuck with you of what that kind of reminded you why this is so important and why you've been doing it for 20 years?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's really three ways people use a reverse mortgage eliminate their monthly mandatory payment, make it optional, access their equity, or um purchase a home and finance it with a reverse mortgage. So I'll talk about the I'll talk about each story here for a minute. So Bill and Sharon came into my office, they'd moved from Arkansas back to Colorado, and Bill was struggling at the altitude with oxygen, and he wasn't well. He goes, Look, I'm not long for the earth. I want to be sure my wife's gonna be okay when I'm not here. Okay, meaning she lived in a house that had low maintenance, that she didn't have to make a payment. And six months later, uh Sharon calls me and she says, Kevin, this is Sharon. I just wanted to let you know Bill passed away. And you had told us that as long as this remains our primary home, we maintain it, we pay the property taxes, insurance, HOADs on time, we can stay everybody to 150 and no payment. Payment's optional, right? I said, that's right. Sigh of relief. She goes, Oh, good, that's the only way I can afford to stay here. Because now she's living on one income. She lost one income. The second one would be uh couple, uh Alex and Angela. They had a low mortgage balance, but he had gotten sick and couldn't could no longer work. So the reverse mortgage paid off the mortgage balance, freed up about uh$1,100 a month, then they accessed their equity about another$1,100 a month. So now they're up to$2,200 a month to live on without Alex's income. That's access equity. And then the third one is eliminate payment. So um this is how most people use it, by the way. They make their monthly payment optional. So the very first lady I helped in 2015 was referred to me by her daughter, a client. Her name was Carmen, she's about five foot enough and just full of fire, ton of fun. And I just asked her, I said, Hey Carmen, why do you want to do this? How's this gonna help you? She lived in a duplex, won the rent side, paid the mortgage, but she only had social security to live on. She said, Well, my budget's tight. I'm like, I get that. A lot of people have that same issue. So tell me more about that. She says, Well, to be honest, I'm using credit cards to buy groceries. She's 84 years old, living on credit cards to eat. At the closing table, I know the math, right? I know how much money we're saving her. No more mortgage payment. That's about 900. And then she could access money, pay off her credit cards. So it's about 1200 altogether a month that she was in her budget. Plus this line of credit that she could access whatever she wanted, convert it to lump sum or monthly payments. So I just asked her, I said, Hey Carm, I know the math, but tell me how this is gonna help you. So I'd been in the business uh 11 years at that point. She kisses me on the cheek. The only time you say I've been kissed at closing. She says, I want you to know this is gonna help me sleep at night. I won't have to worry about money. And I have to go home and tell my wife who got kissed by a lady at closing. That that was kind of the turning point for me to say, man, this is such a great product. I'm gonna tell the whole world, everybody I know, how this can help them. And and I ended up writing the book about it, not just her story, but all my clients' stories, or several of my clients' stories called The Reverse Mortgage Changed My Life. And it's really just their stories of how reverse mortgages helped them. Because it has such a bad reputation, I just wanted people to say, well, maybe it's not so bad after all.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um that first story. So are people over 62 able to purchase a house with a reverse mortgage?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't I didn't know that. I thought it they had to be a pre-existing homeowner to be able to access it. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So as long as they're as long as one of them is 62 years or older, they can buy a house, they have to put up a large down payment. We'll call it 65%. But then the loan puts up the remainder, and as long as it's their primary home, they maintain it, pay the property tax insurance on time. No payments required, and they can live there until they permanently move out.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Yeah, I mean, it's still incredible that you can buy it at closing.

SPEAKER_01:

Um think about this. So many seniors struggle with the stairs or the maintenance of the home or shoveling the snow or cutting the lawn or cleaning the house, whatever it would be. This is a home they've lived in 20, 30, 40 years, but now it doesn't work anymore. So now they have to move like Bill and Sharon. They have to move to a home that better suits them in the stage of life. Lower maintenance, no stairs, and they don't want a payment. The payment's the largest expense in a budget. So yeah, again, for the right person, it's a game changer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Seriously. Um switching gears a little bit, more just talking about people. You wrote the book on all the different stories and the lives that have been changed. You've also traveled the majority of the United States, 47 states, and then to 40 different countries, just experienced life, I would say, and the world. Um, what's a trip or what's something that you learned about people in general that maybe even changed the way that you approach like business and clients just from your travel and and experience with different cultures?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's true. You know, uh cultures and people are so different. And I think as Americans, we tend to think that our way is the best way or the right way. But um, there's lots of right ways. There's lots of ways that work, so to speak. And um, one of the very first times I went overseas, um, we had a host tell us, he said, things are different here. He said, You're not better than us, we're not better than you, but we do things different here. So just be open to learn our culture and our people. And that's the same thing with the verse mortgage. Um it's something to learn about, it's an educational thing. If if people are just gonna take the time, like I have lots of resources to help people learn under the radar without reaching out to me. Like there's a consumer guide on my website they can look at. I've got a uh YouTube channel with a bunch of videos, short videos they can watch. The idea being just to learn how it can work for you. Because like like culture people, they're like a fingerprint. And a reverse mortgage is like a fingerprint. We can tailor it to whatever they want to do. Like, I think about another lady who lives in Grand Junction, Colorado, not far from you guys, um, and her name's Grandma Pat. And I asked her, I said, Hey, why do you want to do this? You own your house outright, it's half a million, you know. Why do you want to do this? She said, Well, I was a single mom, and then my daughter's a single mom, and I have three grandsons, and I want to be the grandma that they talk about when I'm no longer here, and I want to create memories with my grandsons that they're gonna remember for the rest of their lives. So I said, What are you gonna do? She goes, Well, this summer, which was June, they took a trip to uh St. Kitts and had two weeks down there and did all kinds of stuff, parasailing and all the stuff you can do. And she made these memories for these preteen and teenage boys that they're gonna carry with them the rest of their life when she's no longer here. So that's the kind of thing, right? That if people truly understood uh the power of this, that they'd be lining up outside my door.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I think I mean I agree, like it's something that gives access to a just incredible resource, financial resource, to help making the last few decades of life the the best that they possibly can be with whatever the needs might be, whether it's less less monthly payments, access to their equity, or um oh man, what was the last one? I just forgot.

SPEAKER_01:

Financing the home.

SPEAKER_00:

Financing the home, yes. Um, this is awesome. So you've had a long career, multiple different passions. When you look back on your career years from now, what do you hope to be remembered most about Kevin Getman? Not necessarily the mortgage expert, but just the person.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I would say that I I loved people and I just took care of people, looked after people, did the right thing for them, tried to make their life better, tried to listen to what was important to them and create a strategy or a plan to help them, you know, do what they want to do. That's kind of been the whole way of the whole time I've been in the business, you know, since 2004, I just really tried to listen to people and help them accomplish what they're trying to do.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Um, you mentioned you mentioned your website. Um, are you licensed just in Colorado? Who should reach out? How do they get in contact with you? And where there's only 218 certified people, I'm sure you know probably a lot of them. So you could refer to that.

SPEAKER_01:

So our company's in 40 states. I'm with a company called C2 Financial. Um, and I'm licensed in 20. Awesome. But um, yeah, people can go to my website, uh, reverse mortgage revolution.com, and uh if they wanted to download a guide, a consumer guide to read about reverse mortgages, very, very helpful. Compares reverse mortgages with traditional mortgages, reverse mortgage line of credit with home equity line of credit, answers the FAQs, the myths. Uh it's very, very well done, if I do say so myself. And then um I do have a uh YouTube channel called reverse mortgage.video. It's a bunch of um brief educational videos, one to two minutes where people can just go through and pick the topic they want to learn about. And um, those two resources will help them know more than Dave Ramsey or Susan, and I'll tell you about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Sweet. Um I'm gonna go watch those later today, probably. Um, thank you so much, Kevin. This has been another episode of Senior Care Academy. Uh, thanks for joining us and for all that you do to make it so that way home financing is clearer and kinder for for seniors everywhere. So I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, thanks.