What if the home was in my spouse's name only?

Title must transfer through the estate before you can refinance or sell. If there was no trust, California probate is required and commonly runs nine to eighteen months. The complete answer, written for the surviving spouse rather than the borrower, is at reversemortgage.coach/ask-jay/home-in-spouses-name-only.

Surviving spouses face the version of the reverse mortgage where the most damage historically occurred. Before HUD's 2014 and 2015 reforms, widows who had been left off loans received due-and-payable notices and were forced to sell homes they had lived in for decades. The deferral provisions were created specifically to stop that, and they work — but only for spouses who were properly designated at origination.

One fact organizes everything else: whether you signed the promissory note. A co-borrower experiences essentially no change when their spouse dies — the loan continues, the credit line remains available, tenure payments continue. A designated non-borrowing spouse may remain in the home for life but cannot access remaining funds. Someone who was neither, typically because the marriage occurred after closing, faces a loan that becomes due and payable.

Jay Zayer is a Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional with 18 years of experience in California and Arizona. He reviews existing reverse mortgages for surviving spouses — including loans originated by other lenders — and explains the available options whether or not a transaction results.