Most of the 191 laws approved by Iowa lawmakers and signed by Gov. Chet Culver this year will take effect Tuesday.

While small portions of some budget bills were vetoed by the governor, only two were vetoed in their entirety.

They included a law that would have given Iowa’s public employees the widest-reaching union rights in the nation. The other law would have allowed minors to emancipate themselves from parents.

Culver also vetoed a nearly $12,600 raise for himself as well as raises for other top elected officials set by lawmakers, saying that “it is wrong to say to the people of Iowa that you have to tighten your belts, but elected officials don’t.”

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Every now and again ReverseResource.com receives email and/or comments.  The following comment was left in the contact us section.  My response follows:

I would like to state that we are very unhappy with the reverse mortgage that my parents took out from WSFS Bank in 1990. It is a shared appreciation loan that gets 82% of the value of the home. My mother is about to go into a home and the house value is around 2,000,000. My mother will not have the income from the reverse mortgage and needs the money for the nursing home. Not only is WSFS getting a ridiculous interest rate of 11.75% they are going to walk away with another $300,000 – $700,000. This is criminal and immoral to allow these kinds of contracts. Fannie May no longer honors these clauses in their contracts for that very reason. However, when I spoke with Bob Bell at WSFS about the contract he not only was rude but did not see anything wrong with this and no reason he should renegotiate the contract that my parents signed. My father not only was not in his right mind…he died of a brain tumor! It would appear to me to be predatory lending. What does your organization do to protect seniors against lenders with only their profits and self interest at heart and why do you support banks that rip off consumers equity in addition to the huge interest rates they charge? Do you have any recommendations for recourse? Thank you for your response.

Christine Carlton

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For Don and Rebecca Spendlove, just keeping a roof over their heads has taxed their mental, emotional and physical as well as financial capabilities.

The Nipomo couple have found themselves in the same situation as millions of other Americans: Their homes are worth less than they owe, their mortgage terms are crushing their finances and the specter of foreclosure is looming.

Their struggle may be emblematic of the times. Just across their street, in fact, a home has sat vacant for more than a year, the yard untended, the windows coated with dust.

“Our neighbor … just walked away,” said Don. “He said, ‘I’m not paying.’ He just moved away.”

The Spendloves find their situation embarrassing, but they’re willing to talk about it in hopes they can help others avoid the pitfalls that led them to a crisis they never expected to face.

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Families with autistic children and their advocates praise the concept of a new state commission on autism but say it falls short of tackling real issues.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder signed a bill into law Monday in Springfield creating the Missouri Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders and an Office of Autism Services in the Department of Mental Health.

But advocates say it’s window dressing for the larger issue Republican leaders have declined to address: requiring health insurance companies to cover behavioral, speech and physical therapies for autism.

Most insurance companies classify autism as a pre-existing condition, according to parents of children who have the neurological disorder and the Burrell Autism Center in Springfield.

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Martin Montes, 37, a Culver resident, didn’t see it coming.

He bought a new home in 2007, when he had a good job and the economy was fine. But a year later a slew of events – a new baby, a reduction in his weekly hours at Bright Wood Corp., from 40 to 28, and a high-interest loan – made mortgage payments impossible to pay.

It’s a story that’s becoming increasingly familiar and like many, Montes thought he had no choice but to wait for the bank to foreclose on his property.

In the fourth quarter last year, 4,680 homes in Oregon were in foreclosure proceedings – an increase of 26 percent from the third quarter, according to the state Department of Consumer and Business Services.

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Australia’s reverse mortgage sector has experienced a boom, promoting a call for retirees to seek professional advice.

As Australia’s reverse mortgage market skyrockets, retirees are urged to seek informed advice before making decisions over their options, according to Sydney Wide Investments Mortgage Manager (SWIMM) managing director Tim Stoyles.

“At the moment, the reverse mortgage market is around $1 billion-$1.5 billion, but more growth is expected, with projections of up to $15 billion in the next five years,” Stoyles said.

“The figures we’ve seen show it is growing at 50 per cent per annum compared with previous years.”

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Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson today said the Government was looking at a mandatory code of practice, to protect the elderly, for those offering reverse mortgages.

Ms Dyson told Parliament’s social services select committee that home equity releases, also known as reverse mortgages, were a good way for elderly people to get money.

Reverse mortgages are mostly taken up by pensioners who give title to all, or part, of their home in exchange for instalment payments of cash. The money is recovered from the pensioner’s estate when they die.

“I am not implying any of the home equity schemes are anything but reputable but I do believe we have an area of vulnerability, so we may well have some shonky behaviour in the future,” Ms Dyson said.

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Police say 13 people staged minor car accidents to get thousands of dollars’ worth of unnecessary medical treatment from four Bronx clinics.

The 13 people were arrested Tuesday on insurance fraud and grand larceny charges stemming from at least five wrecks. Two suspects are still at large.

Police say the ring targeted car insurance companies, taking advantage of a state law that entitles people involved in a crash to $50,000 worth of medical benefits.

Police say a ringleader would set up the accidents and pay about $500 to those involved in a crash. They would refuse treatment at the accident scene, then go to clinics for acupuncture, physical therapy and other medical care. Insurance companies footed the bill.

Police are investigating whether the clinics were in on the scam.

Found here.

Allegations of mortgage fraud are on the upswing

Three years ago, Donna Robbins tried to use her soaring equity to remodel her house in this Napa Valley community.

Instead, she says she got cleaned out.

Robbins claims that friends from church who ran a finance company agreed to arrange a home equity loan to pay for a new kitchen, bathrooms and landscaping.

As with most financial transactions, there were papers to sign. But Robbins says that what she was told were loan documents were in fact papers that transferred the title to her property.

These new owners subsequently defaulted on the mortgage, according to public property records and a lawsuit Robbins filed in Napa County Superior Court. Now, the house she had inherited from her parents is in foreclosure and Robbins is facing eviction, along with her boyfriend and their seven children.

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Well-intentioned consumer groups have done an admirable job of curbing the abuses of mortgage lenders, but recent legislation passed in Washington state will inadvertently curtail the number of lenders able to offer reverse mortgages.

In a nutshell, Washington state consumers pushed their representatives to increase lender licensing requirements and scrutinize all negative amortization loans. Negative amortization occurs when the monthly loan payment is less than the principal and interest needed to pay off the loan in a specific period of time. The difference is added to the loan amount, so that the borrower owes more than the amount initially borrowed.

Since negative amortization is a key component of all reverse mortgages currently in the marketplace, the number of lenders offering reverse mortgages will be reduced.

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