“The bottom line is if you are functioning independently and well and it's not interfering with your daily functioning, then you're good. It's normal to misplace your keys and sometimes even forget whether you locked your door once in a while. But if it's happening so much that you can't function independently or you can't make the appointment on time because you can't find your keys to get out the door. If it's happening so much that it's so pervasive that it's interfering with your daily functioning, then it's time to go to a memory clinic, at least your doctor or gerontologist or geriatric doctor or a neuropsychiatrist.”

- Rena Yudkowsky, CEO, Memory Matters

I was teaching a technique and one of the ladies said, "Ah, I'm too old for this." There was a group of 15 people in the room, and I turned to the gentleman at the other table, and they're just as old as that woman. I turned to one man, I said, "Well, do you feel that way?" And he's like, "No, I absolutely am not too old to remember this." He was probably 88 or 90 or something. And I was like, "Okay, good. Then this technique is for you. Let's go ahead."

So, if people feel they're too old to remember things, then guess what they are. Because whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. So if you believe you can remember 20 words, then guess what? I can teach you how to do it. But if you start off the conversation saying, "I cannot do this," then you cannot do it until I convince you differently.”

 - Rena Yudkowsky, CEO, Memory Matters

“People don't seem to realize that retirement is in the top 10 list of big stressors in your life and most people just look at it as it's the end, but it's not an end. It's a beginning and you've got to take the time to acknowledge that something has ended, sort out how you're feeling about what has ended and then look forward to what the future has and it's a big transition.”

- Jacquie Doucette, Retirement Lifestyle Planner

“What I've seen as the people who are both physically and mentally active are the ones that are the happiest. The ones that have found something to do every day, something that gets them up and gets them moving for, I'm not going to give a prescribed period of time, but something that gets them up and out of the house and doing something every day as well as having something to keep their brain going, something to solve a problem. My dad did crossword puzzles and the Sudoku every single day. Kept himself thinking, that sort of thing. I don't think that you're going to have a long productive post-retirement life if you don't incorporate exercise and mental health. You've got to keep your brain going.”

- Jacquie Doucette, Retirement Lifestyle Planner

Most brokers maybe have done one, people that don't specialize in reverse. There are brokers that do both and they really do well. I know a few where I'd be comfortable with someone going with them because I know they do a significant amount of reverse.

But most typically, if you find someone that does reverse only, that's going to give you a lot better odds.

There are companies that separate it out like we do. I specifically do reverse only. I think that's a great idea to find someone like that and again, if they have their CRMP even better because that shows they took the time and they're doing CE every year for reverse, spending the money on that designation so that means they're all-in on reverse mortgages.”

- Mitch Cooper, Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional CRPC® and CRCP®

“…the cash flow position, the efficiency position that puts them in can help make the retirement a lot more sustainable because they now have a roof over their head for as long as they can live there, pay the property charges but not have that negative cash flow, the payment.

That scenario is by far our most common client. It's all we're doing is paying off the traditional mortgage and getting rid of that mortgage payment. That by far that's probably 70% of our clients are doing that scenario because more retirees than ever have a mortgage in retirement. It's doubled since the eighties. And so if we can just free up that cash flow, that's a big deal for a lot of people.”

- Mitch Cooper, Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional CRPC® and CRCP®

John Williams WGN-AM:

“You mentioned that gap coverage for dental, vision and hearing. Is there anything... This is a tangent, but since you brought it up, is there anything on the horizon to provide for hearing for seniors? I mean, everybody loses their hearing, some more profoundly than others. It's terribly expensive. There's a range of options, and I'm amazed that for all we're going to do for everybody these days, that we don't do something as basic as underwrite the cost of hearing aids.”

Matt Feret:

Yeah, I agree. And if you throw dental health on top of this, there's a ton of evidence out there that keeping your teeth and your mouth healthy really affects your overall health, and so I agree with you. There was an effort earlier this year in Congress to pass some hearing benefits that eventually got carved out, but there's also a private industry and a private insurance company solution to this. You can buy dental, vision, and hearing plans on the open market at a reasonable rate, and then those Medicare Advantage plans also are allowed to include additional benefits not covered by original Medicare. Dental, vision, hearing benefits are among those. And so if you do a little searching, and there are a lot of options out there, but if you do a little digging, there are Medicare Advantage plans out there that cover those additional things that aren't covered by original Medicare.

- Matt Feret, Author

John Williams WGN-AM:
“Well, if you're working past 65, should you stay on your employer's plan or should you use Medicare?”

Matt Feret:
“…It really comes down to the individual. If you've got full employer's coverage and you like it, and you're working, you can keep it in most cases. Also, really depends on whether or not you've got a partner or a spouse that's not yet 65 and eligible for Medicare, and whether or not they're on your insurance. So it's not a cut and dried answer, and it's a really good time to sit down... You can read it all in my book, where you can sit down with a retirement advisor or an expert Medicare insurance agent, and really walk through the steps… the key here is planning and getting out in front of it, and really understanding the deadlines and timelines, and having those all sync up with your employer-based health insurance.

- Matt Feret, Author

“Being a caregiver has to be the hardest job on our planet right now. Literally. First responder, caregiver. I mean, it is a lot of energy. It's physical, it's emotional. It's so challenging. And so we see it every day, unfortunately. It really falls on the caregiver. But don't underestimate what a two-hour break can give you or a four hour break. If I have to go to work and I'm stressed out all day because I don't know what's going on with my mom at home, I leave her in the morning and I come home at night and I can't afford private care for her and she doesn't qualify for any additional programs. Fortunately for a lot of our clients, they fall right above the Medicaid line, which is the worst place to be in our healthcare system.

“And so I'm stressed all day, well what does that do to my work? I can't stay focused in my meetings. I can't really contribute the way that my employer expects me to. I'm stressed out about my mom all day. And so having a solution like this in those moments can give you that peace of mind to know that it's there. There's something there to keep her safe. There's an option there in the event that ... I'm concerned she's going to fall. There's something there to protect her that she's willing to participate in.”

- David Laiderman, CEO of Veterans Home Care

“The gap or the problem and why our company exists in the first place is that, unfortunately, the same veteran family that typically would qualify … generally doesn't have a savings or enough savings to be coming out-of-pocket to spend the money on the qualifying medical expenses that otherwise qualify you for this program to show proof of spend. And why is that important? Because this particular pension benefit is a reimbursed pension benefit. You'd have to be spending the money to get the money. But if you can't afford to spend money, then you can't show that you qualify.”

“It's a great benefit. It's a great program. The VA's awesome. What they provide is unbelievable but there are some of these interesting gaps. And I think in the time that the program and this benefit and fiduciary was created, it was created to say, "Okay, we have veterans who are coming out-of-pocket and spending money on these expenses and we need to reimburse them." That was the lane that created it years ago. Our company gets a lead, we take a veteran or a survivor and we work them through. We have our own application. We help them gather all the particular documentation they would need to support the VA application. They fill out the VA application and send it in and then we help them gather all the supporting documentation in the event, which is frequent, that the VA would come back and say, "Okay, we need this, this and this to prove these numbers." We get them fully prepared for that.”

- David Laiderman, CEO of Veterans Home Care

“Our members actually walk into the door of our headquarters to ask questions. And I think that's pretty cool, and this happens very frequently. And I think that creates a certain stickiness with these members, such that they can go talk to a human being in our headquarters, ask a question, get guidance, versus calling a generic 1-800 number in the back of their ID card. I think that's really how we stand out as being that local health plan where people can literally come into the door and ask us questions, and they do.”

- Gregg Kimmer, President and CEO of ATRIO Health Plans

“Value-based care is at the core of what we do, and the consumer may not realize that they're benefiting from it, but they are. We are taking unnecessary costs out of the system. So for instance, making the primary care physician copay $0 instead of $20, you're encouraging the person to go create a relationship with the primary care physician such that they won't go to the ER for a headache. Okay? You're removing all financial obstacles from that person, creating that relationship, with that primary care physician. That's one core example of value-based care. And again, I don't think the consumer may realize our motivation here, but it's actually to help them such that we don't put more and more waste into the American healthcare system.”

- Gregg Kimmer, President and CEO of ATRIO Health Plans