Reverse Mortgages and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts

Can someone be needy enough to take out a reverse mortgage but rich enough to take a heavy hit from the federal estate tax at death?

Apparently so. But the sales strategy of using proceeds from a reverse mortgage to fund an irrevocable life insurance trust may be on the way out, says Jim Veale in this column:

Today ILITs are not as popular as an estate planning vehicle as they were in the first half of the last decade. The situation could change depending on the action Congress takes this calendar year. Until proprietary reverse mortgages return and provide substantial proceeds, using reverse mortgages as a means of funding ILITs will be little more than an interesting curiosity of the last decade.