The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC, a division of the US Treasury Dept.) recently came out with a consumer advisory report about Reverse Mortgages. If you remember, a few months ago, the head of the OCC, John Dugan, made one of the worst speeches ever and compared some Reverse Mortgages to subprime loans, so I was not expecting much from this report.

However, I was pleasantly suprised when I read it. The report is fair and except for two small complaints, it is accurate. Here is the link:

http://www.occ.gov/ftp/ADVISORY/2009-2.html

My only complaints are that 1) When it asks "Can I lose my Home?" it answers yes, before it explains the almost infinitesimally small chances of that happening (if taxes or insurance are not paid and there are no funds left in the loan to cover them, this does not happen often at all) AND 2) it says, and it is true that borrowers should not be persuaded as to how they should spend the proceeds, but why would they mention long term care insurance? How can someone buying LTC insurance be a bad thing?