Graceful Finance’s ‘Lifestyle Agreement’ targets senior homeowners with reverse mortgage alternative

Anna Frankowska, the founder and CEO of Miami-based Graceful Finance, says her company is “not reinventing the wheel” with its product that serves a similar purpose as reverse mortgages and home equity investments.Graceful is a 3-year-old company that operates exclusively in Florida, with near-term plans to expand into California and Texas, according to Frankowska. Its Lifestyle Agreement product — which is based closely on home reversion contracts that are more common in other parts of the world — aims to serve a niche of senior homeowners who may not want to take on debt to solve their cash-flow dilemmas in retirement.“We took inspiration from around the world and adapted it to the U.S. market and the legal framework that exists here,” Frankowska said in an email interview with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily.“You find home reversions across the U.K., France, even as far as Australia. The timing is particularly attractive for equity-based products — high interest rates have negatively impacted reverse mortgage origination, and people who traditionally would have taken a reverse mortgage aren’t doing it due to low principal limit factors. The Lifestyle Agreement uniquely solv...