I’ll tell you where I stand before we start, because you’d figure it out by paragraph three anyway: I think a reverse mortgage in Canada is the wrong product for almost everyone who reads this site, and a genuinely useful one for a small handful of people I can describe precisely.

That’s not the same as saying it’s a scam. It isn’t. It’s a regulated loan from a federally regulated bank, with real consumer protections built in. But it’s an expensive loan wearing the costume of a retirement solution, sold with soft-focus advertising and a celebrity spokesperson, to people who are frightened of running out of money and reassured to hear they can “unlock” their home without selling it.

So let’s do what the brochure won’t. Let’s put the actual mechanics, the actual 2026 rates, and the actual compounding math in daylight, and then figure out the small number of situations where I’d tell a friend to seriously consider one. Educated criticism, not reflexive dismissal.