Denver Home Living Huettner Capital Winter 2017/18 | Page 32

MATCHING YOUR HOME
FINANCING TO YOUR
FINANCIAL PLANNING:
How To Efficiently Use Home Equity
during Retirement
W
e reached
out to
our own
Todd
Huettner for his
thoughts on how
clients can use the
equity in their homes
during retirement
without spending a
fortune in loan fees
or taking out a bunch of
money before they need it,
and how they can avoid the risks of a floating
interest rate on a line of credit when clients
can least afford jumps in their expenses.
WHAT TYPES OF CLIENTS ARE REACHING
OUT TO YOU WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT
HOME EQUITY AND FINANCIAL PLANNING?
I am getting questions from two types of clients. The first group
is actually helping their parents plan or make a decision about
their current needs. The second is probably more what you
would expect, where people are looking to plan for themselves
and are either coming up on retirement or are already retired.
WHY IS THIS SUCH A HOT TOPIC RIGHT NOW?
There are several reasons. People feel a sense of urgency as
we are facing a multiyear trend of rising interest rates. Even
though rates are still very low, people want to figure out if
they should do something before rates go higher. Additionally,
most people have a lot more equity in their homes than they
did just a few years ago. Home values in Denver are up over
50 percent since before the housing crisis. Finally, people kick
the can down the road and don’t really look at the specifics
until they need to pull the trigger, which is a big mistake.
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