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Shannon Said:

Inquiry about a reverse mortgage?

We Answered:

You've gotten good answers, but let me bring it down one more level...

Your parents pledged the home to get the Reverse Mortgage. The bank is now first in line with rights to the home. Anyone else's rights to the home would fall in line behind the bank's.

Your Mother cannot give away something she has already given away. She gave the bank the right to the house. It's no longer hers to give away again.

It would be like selling a car and then showing up at the new owner's house, grabbing the car from the driveway, and handing it off to someone else...

Or buying dinner from the A&P, getting everyone around the table, and having the grocery man come into the kitchen and take the food back before you had a chance to eat. When you bought the food, you expected you would have dinner. You gathered everyone around the table because you knew you had dinner. You would never expect the store to come and take dinner back, but that's what you're trying to do with the Reverse Mortgage.

The bank acted in a certain way based upon your mother's pledge of the home. They loaned money and sold the loan to an investor. Your mother accepted the money and the right to live in the home under those circumstances. The technical name for trying to get the house back after using the benefit is "stealing."

And, BTW, your mother has no "heirs" until she dies.

Rosemary Said:

Reverse Mortgage and Last Will and Testaments?

We Answered:

A will is directions for how to dispose of whatever property remains in the estate upon the death of the testator. If there is nothing in the estate, that is too bad. Everyone is free to give away their property before they die. For that matter, a will can be changed at any time and therefore means nothing until the person is dead.