According to HousingWire, credit unions are significantly underserving the reverse mortgage market despite having millions of eligible members. Industry leaders speaking at an ACUMA conference pointed out that credit unions originated just 81 reverse mortgages out of nearly 36,000 nationwide over the past year, even though roughly 55 million credit union members are age-eligible for these products. This represents a major missed opportunity as credit union membership continues to age.
The gap exists partly because many older members don't know where to turn for reverse mortgage guidance. Brandon Bartholomew from Mountain America Credit Union shared that members actually started approaching their institution with outside reverse mortgage quotes, seeking the credit union's advice. He said they were seeing what members were being charged elsewhere and wanted to help them access better terms through their trusted financial institution.
Mountain America's solution was to invest in training. After starting with a single reverse mortgage specialist, the credit union expanded its approach around 2015 by training loan officers and branch employees across all locations to recognize when members might benefit from a reverse mortgage and direct them to appropriate resources. Ron Kamler, president and CEO of Alliance Reverse Mortgage, emphasized that this kind of staff education is critical because otherwise, customer service representatives might simply tell members the credit union doesn't offer reverse mortgages or point them online.
Kamler also noted that reverse mortgages have evolved well beyond their historical role as a last resort for financially distressed retirees. Today, many borrowers use them strategically as part of comprehensive retirement planning, taking advantage of features like credit lines with growth potential. For credit unions lacking in-house expertise, partnerships with specialized reverse mortgage companies offer another pathway to serving members without building internal capacity from scratch.
What I am seeing locally in the Bay Area and East Bay is that many of our older homeowners have substantial equity in their properties and are genuinely looking for smart financial solutions in retirement. If credit unions could better educate their teams about reverse mortgages and how they've become legitimate planning tools rather than distress products, they'd be positioned to serve a real need in their communities while staying true to their member-focused mission.
