Reverse Mortgage Counseling Industry Leaders Announce Launch of National Housing Counseling Association
BusinessWire, March 24th, 2008
A coalition of reverse mortgage counseling agencies and elder care
experts announced today a collaboration to launch the National Housing
Counseling Association (NHCA).
NHCA will act as an independent organization to support HUD-approved
501(c)(3) housing counseling agencies in the delivery of reverse
mortgage counseling services. Its principle goal is to support education
initiatives and provide resources to improve the operational efficiency,
consistency and financial sustainability of reverse mortgage counseling
programs nationwide.
The association will build on existing best practices in the reverse
mortgage counseling industry and will offer membership to all
HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that provide reverse mortgage
counseling and are prepared to meet HUD Home Equity Conversion Mortgage
(HECM) counseling network standards and abide by the NHCA code of ethics.
“The association was created to ensure the
availability and quality of reverse mortgage counseling for seniors,”
said Chuck Stanley, NHCA spokesperson. “With
the near exhaustion of available HUD funds for HECM counseling, and the
delay in HUD's borrower pay regulation, many counseling agencies are
being forced to cut back on counseling services. NHCA has developed an
industry-wide approach to accessing additional grant funds without the
perceived conflict of interest associated with direct contributions by
individual reverse mortgage lenders. We believe this approach will be a
win-win for all reverse mortgage counseling agencies, their clients and
the reverse mortgage industry as a whole.”
Participating agencies will have the benefit of accessing
industry-leading "DirectConnect Reverse Mortgage Counseling Services™"
software, which will be used to gather counseling session data for use
in grant reimbursement and research purposes.
Jay Greenberg, executive vice president of the National Council on Aging
(NCOA), added, “We are excited to assist the
NHCA in increasing financial transparency and maximizing the value of
the counseling and education experience for seniors.”
NHCA is currently endorsed by many HUD-approved counseling agencies, and
agencies from each of the credit counseling trade organizations,
American Association of Debt Management Organizations, Association of
Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies, and the National
Foundation for Credit Counseling. These participating agencies are
responsible for providing more than 80 percent of reverse mortgage
counseling sessions done today: By Design Financial Solutions, Consumer
Credit Counseling Service of Forsyth County, Consumer Credit Counseling
Service of San Francisco, National Foundation for Debt Management,
Lutheran Social Services of Duluth, Springboard and Money Management
International (and its 120 CCCS branch offices throughout the country).
About National Housing Counseling
Association
NHCA pledges help and support the delivery of high quality counseling to
seniors, ensure the delivery of consistent, reliable counseling services
meeting the business needs of lenders, and develop a sustainable source
of revenue for counseling agencies to offset the cost of providing this
much needed service. To learn more, or join the association, contact
NHCA at info@nhcounselingassociation.org.
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