Written by Mike Gruley, as originally published in The Reverse Review.

As I write this, many reverse mortgage professionals across the U.S. are preparing to attend NRMLA’s annual conference in November. For most attendees, getting to Miami, Florida, will involve air travel. It got me thinking about how air travel has become such an acceptable and normal part of our daily lives.

Nearly 2 million people in the U.S. safely travel domestically by air each day. How can travelling at a speed of 500 mph, 35,000 feet in the sky, in a vehicle carrying 15,000 gallons of explosive liquid and weighing more than twice that of a Sherman tank, be part of our everyday life? How did we come to take for granted how beneficial and safe air travel really is?

Maybe it’s because almost all of the risks of flying are not met in the air; they are met before the plane even leaves the ground, before the engines have started and the first seatbelt has been fastened. If you really think about it, most of the risks have been mitigated prior to the airplane coming off the assembly line.

Orville and Wilbur Wright may have begun the process, but over the years, through the combined efforts of physicists, scientists, engineers and aerospace experts, along with well-trained pilots, attendants, mechanics and maintenance crews, air travel has become a routine, run-of-the-mill event for all of us. I’ll bet even the Wright brothers would be astonished!

So, what does this have to do with retirement planning or reverse mortgages?

If we think of retirement planning as a flight to a destination, then we quickly realize that most of the risks our clients face in route to their retirement destination must be met now—today. Once they are “in the air,” it is difficult (if not impossible) to refuel or make repairs. The options they had on the ground (or yesterday) may no longer be available to them, and catastrophe may already be in the cards.

If it took teams of experts and professionals many years to make air travel a safe, acceptable part of daily life, then perhaps that same approach to retirement planning will make reverse mortgages an acceptable, customary part of our retirement.

As reverse mortgages continue to evolve and improvements are made, and awareness campaigns such as the Extreme Summit grow and take hold, teams of financial professionals representing various specialties, including reverse mortgage practitioners, will continue to come together and work in partnership to find proactive solutions that serve the needs of the colossal demographics headed our way. Running a gas can up to a stalling plane is just not an option, and for seniors waiting until they are in financial trouble before considering a reverse mortgage, the situation is often just as futile.

As reverse mortgage professionals, we must continue to align ourselves with other financial professionals and advisors, not just because it is the right way to get business, but because it is the right way to do business.

For decades, our industry has been increasingly working with experts from other financial disciplines, collaborating in a way that has accelerated the safety and viability of reverse mortgages. Similar to air travel, reverse mortgages will eventually become essential and necessary in the daily lives of millions, and those taking reverse mortgages will do so comfortably and confidently. The products, the industry and the participants are improving and moving in that direction each and every day.

I guess the next time I am cruising at 35,000 feet in my Sherman tank, I think of the Wright brothers, and how endless the possibilities can be when educated, passionate experts set their minds to changing the way the world sees things—even things like reverse mortgages.