American Advisors Group (AAG) Reviews
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About American Advisors Group (AAG)
AAG offers several types of reverse mortgages, including FHA-backed home equity conversion mortgages (HECMs) and proprietary jumbo loans. AAG’s jumbo reverse mortgages allow homeowners to access up to $4 million in equity, which is well beyond the HECM limit at the time of publishing. AAG also offers HECM for Purchase loans, a type of reverse mortgage that helps you buy another home.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free online loan calculator
- Multiple payout options
- Access up to $4 million in equity
Cons
- Fees can add up quickly
- Not available in New York and Nevada
Bottom Line
AAG offers HECMs and jumbo reverse mortgages, plus other services to help people change houses. Its online loan calculator gives you an idea of your loan options without submitting personal contact information.
Featured Reviews
Every facet of my Reverse Mortgage Loan was handled with respect and professionalism. It was made simple and they made sure each step was understood… They want you to be sure you ...
Read full review... AAG stood by me all the way for getting me approved… They have all kinds of programs out there to help you. I did a thorough check of companies before I applied with AAG. Chec...
Read full reviewWhat is AAG?
AAG is a lender offering a range of reverse mortgages for eligible borrowers, including HECMs, HECMs for Purchase and jumbo loans. It can also help you sell your home.
With AAG’s reverse mortgage calculator, you can enter details about your property and yourself for a quick, free loan estimate without giving any contact information. However, AAG’s reverse mortgage calculator estimates don’t include fees.
How does an AAG reverse mortgage work?
If you’re near retirement age, the application process for a reverse mortgage is similar to that of a traditional mortgage. A home appraisal is typically required, and you must get a financial assessment to make sure you can keep up with the loan terms. The lender then assesses your eligibility to keep up with payments for property taxes, insurance and other obligations. Failure to pay these auxiliary expenses could cause a default on a reverse mortgage.
The amount you can borrow usually depends on your age, your property’s value and your interest rate. There is a limit for the maximum amount you can get through a HECM, but jumbo reverse mortgages can exceed this limit. Most reverse mortgage borrowers must also complete financial counseling before getting their loans.
If you’re approved for an AAG reverse mortgage, you retain the title to the home, and you can choose how you wish to receive the funds:
- A lump-sum payout allows you to draw 60% of accessible funds in the first year to pay off large expenses.
- A growing line of credit can be tapped when needed for unexpected expenses. The unused principal grows over time, giving you access to more funds the longer it goes untouched.
- Term or tenure reverse mortgages allow you to receive fixed monthly payments. Tenure loans provide payments for as long as you live in the home and comply with loan requirements (such as paying for repairs, homeowners insurance, etc.). Term loan borrowers select how long they would like to receive payments.
- A reverse mortgage for purchase allows you to use the funds to buy another home with no monthly mortgage payments.
Interest accrues on the loan balance over time, along with any fees. The balance of your account is due when you move out of the home, pass away or otherwise violate the terms of your reverse mortgage.
AAG services
AAG provides several reverse mortgage options for different financial situations, including reverse for purchase loans. AAG’s reverse mortgages come with three payout options:
- Lump-sum: With a lump-sum payout, you can draw 60% of your funds in the first year and get access to a large amount of cash to pay for significant expenses like medical bills or home improvement projects.
- Growing line of credit: You can also tap into your home equity through a line of credit, which you can access as needed. The unused principal amount increases over time.
- Term or tenure: You can get fixed monthly payments with a term or tenure reverse mortgage through AAG. A term reverse mortgage lets you select how long you’d like to get monthly payments. A tenure reverse mortgage lets you receive monthly payments as long as you live in your house.
An AAG home equity solutions specialist can help you determine which reverse mortgage loan option is best for you.
AAG reverse mortgage rates
AAG’s reverse mortgage rates depend on interest rate indexes and margin. The company offers both fixed and variable interest rates, but closing costs, origination fees, servicing fees and mortgage insurance may add to your costs. Regardless, you’ll have to talk with an AAG specialist to see the exact rate and fees of whichever loan option you choose.
American Advisors Group FAQ
What fees does AAG charge?
AAG charges interest, an origination fee, closing costs, servicing fees and mortgage insurance premiums when required by HUD. Fees roll into the balance of the loan, and AAG charges interest on your balance, which grows over time.
What is the AAG Foundation?
The AAG Foundation is a paid volunteer time-off program for full-time AAG employees. Through the program, employees get eight hours per year of paid service to AAG Foundation-approved activities.
Where are AAG loan options available?
AAG operates in every state except New York and Nevada.
When was AAG founded?
AAG was founded in 2004.
Is AAG legit?
Yes, American Advisors Group provides several legitimate financial solutions that can make retirement easier, including a variety of reverse mortgages to help qualifying borrowers tap into the equity in their homes. Contact AAG to see which options you might qualify for and learn more about reverse mortgages.
American Advisors Group (AAG) Reviews
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Reviewed Feb. 19, 2023
The first time that we used AAG for a reverse mortgage was also for my uncle on his other home. He did the market research himself and selected AAG and then asked me to start the paperwork process. The paperwork with AAG is much more extensive than any other mortgage. But there's a lot of information. I like that they use DocuSign because that helps the process go faster. Locating all the required documents took a long time. Nowadays, a lot of people don't get all these documents in the mail every month like we used to. You have to log into an account and access a bank statement or a mortgage statement. That was a challenge with my uncle because he was not on the computer due to his disability. Also, he wasn't getting things by paper in the mail.
Tiegs has been our contact. The very first thing she did was explain the benefits. We had already done it once before, so we knew what we needed it for and the benefits of using it. So she didn't need to sell it to me, but she did. She gave me a good list to go by, which was great, because since it was in the email, I could share it with other people in my family that could help me. Then she explained very well a couple of things I had questions about.
Any time I've called her, she called me back or if I emailed her, she emailed me back, but the time difference has been a little bit of a challenge. I'm in Florida and she is somewhere on the West Coast. There's a three-hour time difference. When I am at my computer where I can find the things that she needs or look at her list or any of the information, she's not even out of bed yet. Like yesterday, she called me in what would be her normal business hours, I was home eating dinner and didn't have any of my paperwork with me because I was keeping it in the office where my computer is.
We're in our third week of trying to gather the documents. I submitted them and AAG ordered the appraisal immediately. Then the application had to be signed again. She sent it to me yesterday after I was already gone from the office. So, I'll be doing that this morning. But it came up with a signature that wasn't in the sequence that they needed it to be, so I'll have to re-sign everything. But the time that the process has taken isn't AAG's problem, it has been on our end. Overall, it's been a thorough and good experience.
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Reviewed Feb. 13, 2023
It's worth contacting American Advisors Group and discussing what your options would be, because they are very informative and they care about you. We had to go through counseling. It was an on-the-phone consultation. It lasted 45 minutes. And we have talked with the person that got ahold of us, Kyle, extensively. He explained exactly what it was and all the pros and the cons and what we would do should one of us pass or when both of us pass, what we're supposed to tell our heirs, made sure that we were comfortable with the whole process. I could send Kyle an email whenever, or a text message, and he would get back to me as soon as he could. It was within a half-hour. He even texted me back once and said, “I'm on a phone call. As soon as I'm finished, I'll call you.” It was 25 minutes, and he called me.
The loan officer caught us on a Saturday and discussed everything with us and made sure that we understood what we were asking. He looked around, took some pictures, asked me a couple questions, and left. He was there less than 10 minutes. He has been in constant contact with me up until last week, just about every day. There was no need to be because we were waiting and you have to wait. I just have a problem with some of the documents. They weren't going through DocuSign correctly. I sent Kyle an email and he had the guy call me directly. And we went through it. He explained what he needed. And they work with us well. They made sure that we understood what we were doing. And if we had a problem, they work with us to get it fixed.
Reviewed Feb. 5, 2023
The only asset I have is my house and I can't live without food. I bought the house and I had money left over. I had to put it all back into the house. We planned from the day we bought the house and we assumed we'd have to go with a reverse mortgage in order to pay for that. We wanted to do it first but then AAG wouldn't have given me a reverse mortgage in the condition the house was when I bought it. I put $200,000 in this house. Now, it's the newest house in the neighborhood. But it's the oldest one in the neighborhood because it was started in 1915.
We did AAG because I am an extreme fan of Blue Bloods and I like Tom Selleck. I've been solicited by a lot of companies. I looked at what they had and AAG is the most expensive one. But they are the one that seems to be the most versatile and the one that seems to care the most. I used to be licensed to sell annuities and I refuse to do it because they're wrong. AAG's communication has been above and beyond. I have annoyed their rep but he never showed it. I called him many times and I would have shown it.
Reviewed Feb. 4, 2023
I liked the simplicity of the process. From day one, I knew what the fees would be in the neighborhood of. Just the standard appraisal fees. American Advisors Group gave me a list and I called all the numbers. And I found one that offered 50% off of the appraisal fees. So, they gave me all the information that I would have needed to make a decision without me even asking. It was laid out.
Yolanda has been keeping in contact with me via email and telephone calls. Any kind of clarification, she would reach out to the person that's dealing with the underwriters. So there's a liaison in between, but I have her information if I needed to call her. I just stick with her because I just figured she would get me what I need.
With the counseling, the guy was able to explain a lot of things. And he was upfront with everything. “With the reverse mortgage company, they may say this or they may do that and they need to tell you this.” I stopped him. I said, “You know that they've already told me this?” He went, “Wow! That's awesome. Because a lot of people don't tell you upfront how much something is gonna be." Without selling the house and having to move somewhere else, when I added it up, it still came out more economical to do the reverse mortgage.
Reviewed Dec. 9, 2022
My house is paid off and I have nobody to leave it to. I saw AAG on television regarding reverse mortgages. I figured I would use some of that equity to make some improvements to the house. Suzy was my rep and she has been extremely helpful in explaining things. She sent documents for me to read through. I was a contract negotiator before I retired so I can get past the mundaneness of a contract and how it works. Suzy has been very informative. I know exactly what I'm getting into and I have no qualms about it at this point.
Suzy is extremely upbeat and very available. I called her after reading whatever and then I’d call her for more clarification. She's extremely knowledgeable and has a good attitude. For my situation, she said it was a perfect one, which I already knew because I'd already thought about it. She also explained other alternatives and ways to do it. Suzy was able to put things out there and her comments didn't lean one way or another. I'm still good with the decision that I made initially.
You get a false sense from the communication in the commercials about how the exact process works. I came into it with AAG with a certain set of expectations. My expectation was that I was gonna get 80% of the value of my house but that's not the reality. Even though I was disappointed, I understood what was going on, how they came to that percentage, how they came up with the interest rates, and how the whole process works. If you pay back in and it goes to this and then you get additional funds through this process, you can claim more and you don't get it all at once. I asked why and they said it was because of this and this.
Suzy went into quite a bit of depth about the average person and maybe somebody that wasn't a businesswoman like I was years ago, and that somebody could be scammed. We went through a whole scenario of things. She made it very clear why things are the way they are. I was very satisfied with what she said, even though at the time I was expecting more. I was accepting of the answer that she gave me and I understood it.
Reviewed March 22, 2023
I told the AAG rep I spoke to that I do not have a computer or a printer, so what I wanted are paper copies of things. He's been very good about sending those. However, over Christmas, it was hard to get things back and forth because of the holidays. But now, I'm on the second phase. I'm waiting for an envelope. Today they already did the assessment. He was very professional and looked all around. I told him the improvements. I asked him what entailed next, because I was wondering what the next steps are. He said he would file it by the end of the week. I wanted a paper copy and he got me a paper copy in the mail. It's moving along. The counselor was also professional.
Reviewed March 7, 2023
The representative that I spoke with was extremely knowledgeable. She educated me and helped me understand the process.
Reviewed March 7, 2023
John, the young man in New York, was very bluntly honest because he knew the bad taste in my mouth from a Wells Fargo experience. AAG is good. Had they not, I would have hung up a long time ago.
Reviewed Feb. 28, 2023
Everything went well, and I'm done with the process. American Advisors Group was proactive and did a good job. If you're gonna do a reverse mortgage, you have to understand you're investing money so that you solidify, in my case, a line of credit for when you're old. I paid money because I wanted to have the safety net of a line of credit in the future in case anything went bad.
Reviewed Feb. 25, 2023
Personable, professional interactions with prompt, accurate answers to questions made the whole experience pleasant. For us, dealing with a professed Christian eased any anxiety we had. Thank you for a great experience.
American Advisors Group (AAG) Company Information
- Social media:
- Company Name:
- American Advisors Group
- Company Type:
- Private
- Year Founded:
- 2004
- Address:
- 3800 W. Chapman Avenue
- City:
- Orange
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 92868
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.aag.com