Gerri we begin tonight with new concerns over reverse mortgages. As the market grows and grows there is mounting criticism the way some banks handle the deals. Across the country people finds out hopes they thought were theres are taken away. It happened to laura when the bank sped up bidding on her fathers foreclosure. We have mark from stern cool school of business who studies the issue. Laura, i will start with you. A lot of folks dont know what a reverse mortgage is. It is exactly like what it sounds. Instead of you paying the bank for a house, the bank pace you. It is an arrangement more and more seniors are doing. Laura, your father had a reverse mortgage. What happened when you tried to buy back the house . Well, i was one of the lucky ones. I was there with my father when he filled out the paperwork and, right now, our issue is not buying back the house at this moment. We were promised that i would, he was promised that i would have 12 months to be able to figure that out. As a caretaker for the last 15 years for both parents and especially for him the last several years, ive not had an opportunity to generate my own income and i could do that within the next 12 months if i were given that opportunity and that was what he understood when he signed those papers, that he was very adamant that i would have that opportunity. Gerri my understanding, according to the New York Times story that your story was told in, is that there was a gap in time too, in which the value of the home changed. Did that play into any of the factors of your ability to buy this house . Not at this point. Whats played into it is, theyre not holding up their end ever the bargain. Theyre promises that were made to him in the beginning dont seem to be coming through at this time and every time ive tried to mine kate with them, they refuse to talk to me, for one reason or another. Ive been trying to communicate with them since the month before he died. And gerri wow. They have given us one reason after another, after who another. They want some information. I give it to them, by fax and by certified mail. Then i call in to talk to them and they wont talk to me because it hasnt been up loaded yet. They need 20 days to up load the information. Gerri sounds very, very frustrating. It sound like a frustrating situation. Very frustrating. I want to bring mark in now. The issue that has evolved lately, and there have been many with reverse mortgages, is that federal rules require these lenders to give survivors an opportunity to buy the house at a fraction of the cost, not 100 of its value. Now were starting to see in some markets, in someplaces thats not happening. Does that surprise you . It does surprise me. Not at you will. Gerri mark, go right ahead. That is all right, lory. Banks dont want to own houses. Borrower is allowed to pay 59 of the appraised value and appraiser is hired is by 9 bank. Banks are not in the business of owning houses but in the business of lending money. Im sorry for the situation that happened with your guest. There are federal laws, 30 days after death, for 30 days after the borrower dies the heirs are allowed to figure out what they want to do. Then theyre given a sixmonth period in which case to secure financing to decide to purchase house. Allowed to purchase house at less than loan value or 59 of appraised value. Banks are not in the business of trying to get these houses. How do you respond . Tough love coming from mark. Were talking about two Different Things. Im all for the banks getting their money back. Im all for paying whats owed on the house but the problem is, they promiseed us, they promised my father, i, after his death would have 12 months, if i needed it. If i needed it. Not if they wanted to give it to me. If i needed it. I will swear in a court of law as recently as this february, last month, they are still promising the same thing. So theyre misleading us. They fav me the false impression that i could have 12 months to be able to generate the income to pay them back the money they want, even with additional interest. Gerri mark, go ahead. I hope she got that promise in writing because federal law is six months. If she didnt, you know, there are bad actors in every organization. The bank she may have borrowed the money from may have a bad actor but federal law is six months. This 12 months promise given, she better have it in writing. Gerri mark, this is not the first time people have had problems with reverse mortgages. There have been lots of complaints about them. Right now we see seniors have a ton of home equity they might be just deeply desiring to put into a reverse mortgage because they want to access that cash and continue to live in the home, some 3. 34 trillion. Do you believe that these reverse mortgages are a good product . Theyre terrible product. You know, what happens is, you get the loan and then lets say you die 10 years down the road. You get lump sum payment, that is one option. It accrues interest for 10 years. Not making any payments. At end of 10 years you will owe some enormous balloon payment your heirs probably wont be able to pay unless they have a lot of cash on their own. It is not a good product. Interest compound. One of the things that amazed einstein. And also up front fees on these things are not cheap. Gerri tens of thousands of dollars they can add up to, that is absolutely right. Bring lora back in here for a second. What do you think . Mark doesnt think theyre good products. Do you agree at this point . I would hope she doesnt think its a good product. If you know up front, if you know up front what the rules are and they follow the rules, but theyre not following the rules. Thats the problem. I guest is claiming she has a fraud case. They help some people. And that is her story. Were glad she came to tell us about it. Lora, mark, thank you for being here today. Really appreciate your time. I covered reverse mortgages for a long time. There are lots of questions as mark suggests. Now we want to know what you think. Here is our question tonight and the answer to our question of the day, who benefits the most from reverse mortgages . Banks or consumers . Log on to gerriwillis. Com. Vote on righthand side of the screen. I will share results at end of tonights show. On to another danger in our community, a danger of ecigarettes. There are reports of potentially deadly new drug hitting the market. That drug is nicotine but in liquid form. The key ingredient in ecigarettes. With us addiction expert joe shrink. Joe, we were talking in the green room about this. I read scary stuff what is in these cigarettes . I think that is good question. That is one of the things about them that is unknown. We know there is nicotine in very concentrated form and liquid form and people can overdose on neck teen. Not many people know about that but it is possible. Workers who work in tobacco fields have to wear protective gear because they can ingest nicotine from picking it. That is what is really important to know about them, that nicotine is not a harmless substance. Gerri big sell, people waned to quit smoking and this is seen as one way to do it. Do you agree as an addiction expert. Not a way to quit smoking. Maybe a way to shift your addiction to nicotine to a different form and different route of admission. We were talking about in the green room, its, kind of like diet soda where people think it is healthier because it doesnt have the sugar or doesnt have the calories but it is still full of chemicals that are not healthy. Gerri full of nicotine. And full of nicotine which is highly addictive. We run a rehab here in new york city, rebound brooklyn, and many of our clients report that nicotine is more difficult to quit than heroin. Gerri yet people do it all the time. People do quit. People do quit, absolutely. It is not impossible to quit but its a very difficult addiction to give up. Gerri joe, what do you think should happen to these ecigarettes . Theyre being marketed to kids out there. They are being marketed to kids. The number, the sales to high schoolkid have troubled in one year. So it is something to be concerned about. Now lots of people go from these to actual cigarettes themselves. We do know that the data gerri so instead of making fewer people smoke, it may make more people smoke. It may make more people smoke. There is not the longterm health data to know the longterm health repercussions. My mother, talked about in the 60s, we smoked when we were pregnant. Nobody thought that was weird. Years later we know that is crazy. We dont know the longterm repercussions of these devices. Because it hasnt been tested . Been tested and they havent been around long enough to know what is happening. Were experimenting in the field with the Public Health not knowing what might happen. That is absolutely correct. There needs to be some kind of regular lace on them, on sales of them. Gerri i think mom and dad need to say no. I think that is what has to happen. Mom and dad saying know is something incredibly valued left the culture and needs to come back. Gerri joe, thanks for coming on the show tonight. Great to meet you. Thank you. Gerri we have more coming up including how to find the right Financial Planner for you. Were looking out for you and your money. Consumer reports is here with the top picks for headphones for your budget. Hi, are we still on for tomorrow . Tomorrow. Quick look at the weather. Nice day, beautiful tomorrow. Tomorrow is full of promise. We can come back tomorrrow. And we promise to keep it that way. Driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. What a day. Cant wait til tomorrow. Gerri sometimes dont you just want to hear nothing, nothing at all, quiet . Well thats why consumers love noise canceling headphones but are they worth the hefty price tag and which ones are the best . Here with his list Consumer ReportsSenior Electronics editor jim wilcox. Great to have you here. Everybody talks about the bose headphones, did they start the whole craze. They actually did. They made noise canceling headphones for pilots. They got into the consumer markets and still are one of the best brands in terms of doing noise canceling. Gerri what is popular, the qc15 . Big ground breaker. That is over ear model. Had succession moved dells. We tested this one, it did excellent for Noise Cancellation and very good for sound. Gerri boy, oh, boy, theyre not cheap. Most of the ones topping our list from 250 to 400 range. Getting both good sound and Noise Cancellation can be expensive. Gerri what i love about your magazine you test everything you talked about. What were topranked headphones. At the very top, the beats by dr. Dre. Executives. And sms. We have them here. The bose were right up there and a pair of ippsp which is speaker manufacturer that bottom into the head phone business. Gerri were still talking 300 bucks and i think it is 280. I cant rely on my bad eyes to tell. But still expensive but these are the best because why . What do they do for you . What they do is two things. There are noise canceling headphones that are great at noise canceling but they dont sound great. Other models sound great but dont do good job reducing noise. These do both. Gerri that is high hurdle. Lets talk about a bar gain choice, if you dont want to pay 300 bucks there is way around them. We used to go in the store, sell them 60 hdmi cable. For 110 they have a model third price of other models. Does excellent Noise Cancellation and very good sound. Gerri you have something more portable. Bose make as quiet comfort model called 20. This is ear model you jam in your ear. Performed almost similarly to over the ear models. Gerri end doesnt it bug you ones deep in the ear. I dont like wearing them after 20 minutes they bother me. Over ear is good for some people. A lot of people wear them around their neck. They dont listen. Headphones are fashion item. Other people prefer inner ear. Theyre not as noticeable walking around. Gerri one of the things that confound me, what were listening to, forget about the headphones for a second is often not a quality level. If youre listening to one of these little, you know, recorders, the quality of the sound just isnt that great to amplify and put through ear phones. Right that is good point too. These headphones have a thing called sensitivity. What it is, really how much power it will take to drive it at levels you can hear what youre outside. Make sure they have at least medium sensitivity so you can actually hear it at sufficient volume. Jim what is the next thing youre testing . Were testing a lot of new tvs, ultrahdtvs, curved screens, things like that. Gerri come back and talk to us about them. Sure. Gerri thanks so much, jim. Great to see you. Great being here. Gerri later in the show, why no one is still not sure of the obamacare deadline. Do we know . Does the administration know . Next we answer the question, how do you do that . Well have advice finding the perfect Financial Advisor for you. We asked people a question, how much money do you think youll need when you retire . Then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. I was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. Im going have to rethink this thing. Its hard to imagin how much well need for a retirement that could last 3years or mor so maybe we need to approach things dferently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. If we want to be ready for a longer retirement. Are you still sleeping . Just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. The First Technology of its kind. Mom and dad, i have great news. Is now providing answers families need. Siemens. Answers. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones become one of the biggest Financial Services companies in the country . Hey. Yours . Not anymore. Come on in. [ male announcer ] by meeting you more tn halfway. Its how edward jones makes sense of investing. Gerri coming up, finding the perfect Financial Advisor for you. What you need to know to make i had easier coming up. David are you looking for a Financial Advisor . Want to know who would do a good job for you . There is an art to picking a good one. Joining me is the founder and director of spring leave partners, doug black. Welcome to the show. Great to have you here. You do this for a living. I do, gerri. Gerri you advise people with highers high net worth. Yes i do. Gerri generally what price range. Five million and 250 million, both families individual and nonprofits. There is lot at stake and paying you a chunk of dough to find somebody good. Ask a couple questions i get asked all the time. Fire away. Gerri how much should i expect to pay . And hough money do i have to have somebody will be willing to run it for me . Lets deal with the first one. How much do you have to pay. Depend what youre looking for. We would get fees based on level of assets. Complexity of the problem, and sophistication of the solution. And so, for a normal investor, that, you should expect to pay for advice, about 1 . Gerri that ace good rule of thumb, 1 . More assets than that, less, and, fewer assets than that, maybe a little more. Gerri now look, people really worry about this and they fret over it and, a lot of people never even hire Financial Advisor because theyre afraid they are going to screw up. What kind of mistakes to people typically make hiring a Financial Advisor . First they dont do Due Diligence. They dont have a formal process. They might ask a friend. Gerri yeah. Might ask trusted advisor. Gerri your uncle. A relative. Gerri brotherinlaw. Who are you you using. I will use the same person. Youre asking me to be fiduciary myself. It is almost formal. Have your own process. Define what youre trying to do. Ask firms how they fit that need, then go methodically through a number of firms and try not to make the mistakes that most people make. Gerri and those mistakes are . So first of all, thinking bigger is better. So big firm, big advisor, corner office, all that means is theyre big. Doesnt mean theyre good. Gerri they might charge a lot. So Financial Service is a salescentered service. Dont get swayed by sales rhetoric. Like for advisetores. Look for performance. Look for fees. Look for how long they have been in the business and disciplinary record. Gerri what you say you can trust this person too much. So, we believe in trust but verify. We have something, when we look at advisors we look at something called sales gap. So when we look at an advisor, first thing we ask them to do, tell us everything they can about the business. We take all the marketing materials, everything they told us and we go in and do deep Due Diligence on the numbers and what they told us and what the facts are. Gerri will have i access to facts from individual trying to find out about these guys . Most people dont know what questions to ask. The business relies on that. They rely on sales veneer in that business. The industry hires, trains and retains based on that. Gerri how much money do you make for the client . What is your average annual return. Certain types of advisors will be able to give you that. If theyre asset manager and Proven Results reported results they will give you those. As a normal investor what you will generally hear, oh, everybody is different, right . Every clients slightly different. Gerri doesnt anticipates the question. Should you be looking to see if they ever have been in trouble with the law . Should you go that far. First place start with the regulatory background, publicly available on finra site or sec site. Look how many firms and how many years, people who move a lot, that is bad sign, right . Look at customer disputes and how they have been resolved and ought to look at regulatory discipline for the advisor. Thats absolutely the first place you need to start. Gerri is average advisor have that, or disciplinary background or good ones dont have anything at all . Best majority of advisors have no displain nary record. If you happen to pull one and see that there is one gerri even a little bit. Why take the chance, right . Gerri other question i want to ask you, these guys all have letters after their name. Yep. Gerri certified Financial Planner. Cfhbc, mickey, what are the best ones . Cfp, cfa and sima. There are 200 other designations. Many are marketing gimmicks by the firms themselves or by firms that sell a designation for a certain amount of money with no really demonstrated expertise needed, argue we zoo a lot of cfps. Particular