I’m 73, my husband is 74. Both reasonably healthy although we take pills for blood pressure and cholesterol. The house we are in belongs to us and the bank, and in the current market we have probably around 55% equity.
So I’m throwing ideas around in my head about reverse mortgages and what happens when*, and whether it is better to take the money out now and not have to make those mortgage payments, or to continue to allow the house to appreciate. Who knows what the future may bring?
*What happens when – I think I understand what happens when the last of the two of us dies, or if we decide to move permanently, or if one of us has to go into long-term care, and so on.
So I’m not asking you for advice. I’m asking you where to find good advice. I’m sure there are lots of online discussions, but I would rather find a person or two, who can talk to us and help us decide what’s likely to be the best path. We’re willing to pay someone who is disinterested and who has a fiduciary duty to work for our best interest, rather than someone who wants to persuade us to buy something that they just happen to be selling. I’m just not sure what sort of professional that is, or how to find a good one.
I can’t help you. I do recommend the books The Wealthy Barber and its sequel The Wealthy Barber Returns for general advice. Looking for fiduciary responsibility would help. I am sure AARP or Consumer Reports has good general advice and might check those sources.
Some people specialize in exactly what you are looking for. Perhaps you have friends or family in your area who can recommend someone. If not, you’ll have to do some digging until you find a financial advisor you feel comfortable with and can trust.
When I retired, my wife and I decided to pay off our mortgage, and it was a relief not to have to make a monthly house payment for the first time in 40 years. Unfortunately, we are now concerned about being house-rich and cash poor, which isn’t good. We have a financial advisor, and we had enough saved to last our lifetime, but then the stock market corrected. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer or way to predict the future.
Yes, this is important, though even with advisors who are fiduciaries, you want someone who has experience with older clients. And even then, you probably need two other individuals, an estate lawyer and a tax advisor to cover your entire situation. Of course that depends on your unique situation, but based on your stated concerns I suspect all three can play a valuable role.
I agree with the basic advice here, but be sure to interview a few possibilities. Look for someone who listens to you and does not have an agenda, either what they think is the one answer or especially to sell you stuff.
Before you go to any interviews, research the hell out of everything you can and agree on your goals. The major things for us were making sure we had enough money to live on and having a moderate level of risk. We did not care if our investments did not grow as fast as riskier ones.
I’ve never found a site for retired people that I liked at all, so I can’t recommend one of those.
But agree on goals and then find someone who can give you advice to meet those goals. And good luck.
Now, how to find a good one. If I understand the designation correctly, a CFP is a fiduciary by definition. You can find a directory of CFPs here:
One of the issues when looking for an advisor is finding one who works for a flat or hourly fee, rather than a percentage of assets under management. It sounds like you only want to pay for advice, not to have an advisor manage your money. One professional manager talks about a solution in this podcast (should open around the 43 minute mark):
You can easily search for the planning network he mentions, but be careful, it looks like some of those advisors are charging for assets under management. Even so, many list fixed or periodic fees.