A "Reverse Mortgage" is when an elderly person owns their home free and clear, but is not receiving as much cash as is necessary for their current expenses. Reverse Mortgages can provide for monthly payments of cash by the mortgagee to the parent, thereby increasing the amount of the mortgage (which started at -0-) and is added to the mortgage. On the parent's death, the mortgage is paid off with monies from the sale of the property, and the remainder is given to the children. If this is handled by an insurance company, a maximum advance of $125,000 could bear an initial fee of $10,000. If one of the parent's children is able to make the monthly payment every month, it is a way for him or her to obtain some interest on that money. Interest could be as low as 4.6% to 5% per annum. Now, the child can advance money to his parent(s) and knows that the money will be returned to them, before the division of the sale proceeds of the house, after his parent(s) dies. The child will receive the money back in closing and there would be no problems with his brothers and sisters for the return of the actual cash paid. In this way, the parent(s) can avoid the rather large fee that insurance companies would charge. To aid the child in obtaining the money, he or she might try a money purchase mortgage on his or her own home from which child would receive the funds payable to his or her parent(s). This loan on the child's home will have a much smaller expense ratio than the Reverse Mortgage with the parent(s).