How a HECM actually works
The federally insured version, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, lends against your equity while you keep title and keep living in the home. Instead of you paying the lender monthly, interest accrues against the balance, repaid when the last borrower permanently leaves the home, usually via the home's sale. You remain responsible for property taxes, insurance, and upkeep; falling behind on those is how reverse mortgages get people in trouble.
Proceeds arrive as a lump sum, monthly payments, a line of credit that grows over time, or a mix. The growing credit line is the feature planners like most: an emergency reserve that expands regardless of housing markets.
The honest cases for and against
For: eliminating an existing mortgage payment on a fixed income; funding in-home care that keeps you out of a facility; bridging early retirement years so investments keep compounding; and the credit-line reserve strategy. Against: costs are front-loaded and real; the balance grows instead of shrinking; heirs inherit equity minus the accrued balance; and if you may move within a few years, it rarely pencils. Anyone who pitches a reverse mortgage without asking about your heirs, your health outlook, and your other assets is selling, not advising.