Reverse Mortgage Counseling
Before a HECM can move forward, everyone who must be counseled meets with a HUD-approved counselor. You choose the agency, and our program starts processing only after the signed certificate is in.
Who must be counseled
FHA’s HECM rules list who must complete counseling before the loan can be processed. Our program also requires everyone on title to attend.
- Every borrower with legal competency, including a borrower who is using a power of attorney.
- Every non-borrowing spouse, eligible or ineligible. Our program requires the spouse to attend along with the borrower and sign and date the certificate.
- Everyone else on title, called a non-borrowing owner, who also signs and dates the certificate.
- An agent holding a durable power of attorney who signs the application or closing documents for a competent borrower.
- For a borrower, spouse or owner who lacks legal competency, the person holding the power of attorney or a court-appointed conservator or guardian.
- The primary beneficiaries of a living trust that holds the home, and every remainder holder when a borrower holds only a life estate. Our program does not allow an irrevocable trust.
Every competent borrower
Spouses not on the loan
Everyone else on title
Agents who sign documents
Guardians and conservators
Trust and life estate cases
How HECM Counseling Works
FHA requires counseling from a counselor on the HECM Roster. The counseling comes from a third party, not from the lender.
The lender must give you a list of HUD-participating counseling agencies with their names, addresses, and phone numbers. The list must include agencies that counsel by telephone and at least five agencies in your state or area, including one local agency within a reasonable driving distance for face-to-face counseling. You contact an agency and schedule the session yourself. The lender may not steer you to, or recommend, any one agency or counselor.
Counseling teaches you about the HECM program and how to avoid becoming a victim of fraud schemes. Counselors use printouts from FHA’s HECM calculator to calculate your principal limit and compare payment plan options with you. Sellers, real estate agents, builders, lenders, and other parties with an interest in the transaction may not be present during the session.
When counseling is successfully completed, the counselor gives you a Certificate of HECM Counseling, signed and dated by the counselor and each person counseled. Our program processes your application only after that signed and dated certificate is in. For the other things the lender reviews, see our reverse mortgage requirements page.
Why the order matters
This page is for homeowners 62 and older and the adult children helping them get ready for the counseling step.
Processing Waits For The Certificate
Our program starts processing the initial application only after counseling is complete, shown by the signed and dated certificate. Under FHA’s rules, the FHA case number cannot be requested before the certificate is received either.
No Fees Before The Certificate
A lender may not charge you any fees, or collect your bank account or credit card information, before it receives the signed and dated certificate for each person who must be counseled.
Credit And Appraisal Come After
With our program, the credit report and the appraisal must both be dated after your counseling date. Only a preliminary title report may be ordered before counseling.
What Can Happen First
Before counseling, a lender may explain the HECM program, discuss whether you may be eligible, explain the fees and charges, describe the possible financial effects for you, and give you sample copies of the note, mortgage, and loan agreement.
The Certificate Lasts 180 Days
The certificate stays valid for 180 days from the date counseling was completed. Under FHA’s rules, the lender must order the FHA case number before it expires.
Copies Of The Certificate Work
The lender may accept a copy of the signed and dated certificate sent by fax, by mail, or electronically, from the counselor or from you. One certificate can name more than one person.
Hear From Homeowners Like You
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions families ask about HECM counseling.
No. FHA’s rules do not allow a lender to steer you to, or recommend, a particular agency or counselor. The lender also may not discuss your personal information, including the timing or scheduling of your counseling, or ask about the topics covered in your session. The lender gives you the list of agencies, and you choose one and schedule the session yourself. Nor may the lender pay the agency or counselor, directly or indirectly.
It can be either. The agency list you receive must include agencies that counsel by telephone, plus at least one local agency within a reasonable driving distance for face-to-face counseling.
Yes. FHA’s rules require a non-borrowing spouse to be counseled, and our program requires the spouse, eligible or ineligible, to attend along with the borrower and sign and date the certificate. Anyone else on title must attend too. With our program, anyone who quitclaimed their ownership interest in the home in the six months before the application must also sign and date the certificate.
Sellers, real estate agents, builders, developers, lenders, and other parties with an interest in the transaction may not be present. They also may not give you advance copies of the counselor’s review questions with answers.
It stays valid for 180 days from the date counseling was completed. Under FHA’s rules, the lender must order the FHA case number before it expires. If you already have an unexpired, signed and dated certificate, the lender does not need to give you a new agency list.
Only on a HECM to HECM refinance, and only if every FHA condition is met. If your original HECM got its case number on or after August 4, 2014, you and any non-borrowing spouse must have received HECM counseling; if it got its case number before that date, there must be no non-borrowing spouse. You must receive FHA’s anti-churning disclosure, and our program requires it to be signed at the time of application. The increase in your principal limit must exceed the total cost of the refinance by an amount equal to five times that cost. No more than five years can pass between closing on your first HECM and applying for the refinance, and that period does not restart with each refinance. Our reverse mortgage program does not apply this waiver in California, even when every condition is met.
If you are legally competent, you still attend counseling yourself and sign the certificate. An agent holding a durable power of attorney who signs the application or closing documents for you must be counseled too. If a borrower lacks legal competency, counseling is completed by the person holding the power of attorney or by a court-appointed conservator or guardian.
Find out what you qualify for
Tell us about your home, who is on the title, and what you want the money to do, and we will explain the counseling step and what comes after it.
Get Pre-Qualified- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA and housing resources
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA mortgage insurance premiums
Loan amounts, rates, terms, and eligibility are subject to credit approval, asset and income verification, appraisal, and program guidelines. Program availability varies by state. Not all applicants will qualify. Saxton Mortgage, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender.