As more seniors are looking for cash, alternative funding programs are being marketed as more mainstream options for facilitating their lifestyle transitions. Reverse Mortgages and life settlement vendors have been spending enormous amounts of money promoting their services through various advertising channels that focus on providing educational materials on their services. These services, once thought of as only a last resort, are becoming a necessary funding and liquidity backstops for day to day living expenses as well as facilitating the downsizing process. These “new” programs are really the same programs but with a softer message as marketers have learned that the decisions around these products are more about meeting their needs (necessity) and less about wanting to have to use these products. An area of concern that has arisen more recently is misleading marketing messages such as postcard mailers for reverse mortgages that look like an official US government mailer tricking seniors into calling for that product by misleading them that they are working directly with the federal government. A California news station recently ran a piece on this misleading reverse mortgage advertising that provides evidence that this type of messaging not only confuses seniors but will become more prevalent as senior’s financial resources dwindle either as they age or with a continued economic downturn.
Marketing Ploy Disguised As Government Offer
