SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD … AGAIN
Fred Thompson is dead …
The former “Republican” presidential candidate, U.S. Senator, Law & Order actor and hawker of reverse mortgages kicked the bucket at the age of 73 due to a recurrence of lymphoma.
To read the sprawling, fawning obituary in his home state paper, click here.
Our view on Thompson is less favorable … although we’ve been repeatedly told we’re not supposed to say bad things about former elected officials after they die. So … we’ll refer our readers to an open letter published last January, around the time Thompson started shilling for a company that sells taxpayer-guaranteed loans targeting old people on fixed incomes.
Written by Liz Main, the open letter exposed the predatory nature of these loans – and then sought to determine whether Thompson was vouching for them in his capacity as an actor or former elected official.
Or both …
“People who are hooked by your ads are living with the thermostat turned way down, Fred,” Main wrote. “Even if they get a reverse-mortgage loan, they may not hang on to their homes for long, because they’ll still have to pay taxes, insurance and upkeep – or their home will be sold to pay off the loan and all its related fees and charges. A year in a nursing home also triggers a home sale.”
Main then asked Thompson whether any of that worried him.
“Do you feel even a little bit bad about the script’s reference to President Reagan—the one that makes it sound as if The Gipper were personally blessing every loan?” she wrote. “Because the FHA reverse-mortgage bill Reagan signed into law in 1988 does more to protect the lender than the homeowner. It allowed for reverse mortgages to be insured by the FHA, meaning the lending institution would not lose money. Once there was no financial risk for lenders, they started pushing the loans aggressively.”
Indeed …
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4 comments:
Don't blame Fred. Just like any other loan there are people who borrow money irresponsibly. If you get a reverse mortgage and then blow the money on something and can't afford your taxes or insurance and default that's not Fred's fault that is your fault. In the article it stated that there was a 10% default rate. That means 90% of the people who took a reverse mortgage hadn't defaulted and possibly were enjoying the fruits of the reverse mortgage. Was Fred responsible for their happiness? No.
Fred was a good man
He sure was.
All the banks have to do, is wait until the "reverse mortgagor" is in a nursing home for up to a year, or dead. That's why they can claim
the default rate is "only" 10%.
An aboveboard "reverse mortgage" would include escrowed taxes and required insurance, so there would be no cause to foreclose
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