Are You Overestimating Your Ability to Access Your Own Money in Retirement? | Mandelman Matters

``It was only a few years ago that if you had equity in your home and you wanted to convert some of it into cash, you could get approved for a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or second mortgage, in a few days and without fail... but those days are long gone... The only practical way to access your home equity once retired is by using a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, or HECM for short, which is the reverse mortgage that's regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)... and insured by the FHA... [But] the new rules require that homeowners pass a new "financial assessment" test in order to determine whether they have sufficient income to pay their debts and living expenses... I'm not saying that the new rules make it impossible for everyone to qualify, because that's not true either... but what is true is that for many homeowners, the new rules mean that if you wait until you really need a reverse mortgage, you may not be able to get one.''