Happy July 4 weekend from all of us at Reverse Mortgage Daily! As a reminder, we’re off both Monday, July 3 and Tuesday, July 4, returning to a regular posting schedule bright and early on Wednesday, July 5. We hope you have a happy and safe time!

But before you step out the door, let’s take a look at the top stories from the week that was in Reverse mortgages — or, if you’re looking to make a quick escape, bookmark this page for a refresher while you shake out the cobwebs on Wednesday morning.

Michigan Lender Acquires Home Point’s 40-Person Reverse Mortgage Division — Huron Valley Financial snapped up Home Point Financial’s reverse mortgage this week, bringing Josh Shein and the rest of the nearly 40-person Home Point team to Huron Valley’s 1st Nations Reverse Mortgage subsidiary.

One Reverse Rolls Out New Ad Campaign Without Winkler — After the amicable exit of longtime spokesman Henry Winkler, One Reverse Mortgage decided on a new, celebrity-free approach for its latest ad campaign, instead letting seniors’ memories and active lifestyles take center stage.

NY Times Delves into Appeal of Tom Selleck as Celebrity Spokesman — In a piece that generated some unintentional controversy — more on that later down the list — the New York Times explored the appeal of Tom Selleck, Alex Trebek, and other trusted spokespeople of a certain age when marketing products to seniors.

Older Residents in These States Complained the Most to the CFPB — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a state-by-state breakdown of the complaints it’s received since opening its database in 2011, and while the numbers largely tracked with population size, the statistics revealed that mortgages weigh heavier on older Americans than other financial products or problems.

Reverse Mortgage Professionals Correct the Record on N.Y. Times Piece — The same Times piece mentioned above included an unfortunate reference to banks taking borrowers’ houses after they die, riling up Home Equity Conversion Mortgage professionals who correctly claimed that such a generalization was grossly misleading.

Oregon to Roll Out Stricter Reverse Mortgage Advertising Laws

Starting in 2018, non-bank reverse mortgage lenders in Oregon will need to provide a host of additional information when marketing HECMs to consumers. Ads will have to walk prospective borrowers through the end-of-loan process, disclose all fees and ongoing obligations, explain that the loan balance grows over time, and warn that interest isn’t tax-deductible unless payments are made, according to a breakdown from Weiner Brodsky Kider, PC.

That’s all thanks to a new law signed last month by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, which also requires servicers to provide more explicit warnings about the consequences of not paying property taxes, insurance, or maintenance costs.

The advertising disclosures will need to be “clear and conspicuous,” according to the law firm, which serves as outside counsel for the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. That means anyone advertising HECMs will have to make sure that the required information is presented in large type, printed in a contrasting font, or “set off from surrounding texts by symbols or other marks in a manner that draws attention.” The law also applies to spoken pitches, which in Oregon will be required to meet certain “volume and cadence” criteria.

Resolute’s New System

Resolute Bank announced significant reverse mortgage growth, which it attributed in part to a new proprietary loan-management system. ReverseWorks, which the Maumee, Ohio-based bank developed in house, collects all the paperwork associated with loan origination in one place, and provides alerts to loan officers when certain milestones are met.

“It helps us facilitate faster file movement by having all that information in one location,” Resolute’s reverse mortgage business development manager John Metcalf tells RMD.

Written by Alex Spanko