Age Concern head Claudette Fleming has given backing to the reverse mortgage concept after claiming seniors were too often giving away their inheritance to relatives who don't care.

And she urged more people to make a will to avoid being pressured by family members who didn't really have their best interest at heart.

A recent wide-ranging survey showed that the seniors least likely to have wills were black females – yet they were the demographic with the highest home ownership.

The Seniors' Test for Ageing and Trends (STATS) report showed 72 percent of pensioners have their own homes – down from 75 percent – and 51 percent are mortgage-free.

Mrs. Fleming told The Royal Gazette: "Seniors are getting pressured into leaving their assets to a particular child because they haven't given it a lot of thought ahead of time.

"We are seeing this, they get sick, they have a vulnerable moment.

"Joey came to see them five times when they were in hospital, they leave their house to Joey, they get better but Joey is irresponsible.

"Now the other children are unhappy with the decision she made and Joey is expected to care for mother when he never did in the first place."

Mrs. Fleming urged seniors not to tell their heirs who was getting what in the will before they died.

"We have this romantic idea that seniors were more valued yesterday than today. Not so.

"In agrarian society seniors were valued because they had property, they had assets. If you wanted to inherit or come into assets you had to treat them properly.

"In Bermuda we have this tendency to give away all of our assets to our children without them having to do anything. I think this is a practice that needs to stop.

"We have to have a targeted campaign about wills and estate planning to black females in particular as well as the general public."

However the survey showed seniors weren't terribly interested in the reverse mortgage concept, where people can cash in equity in their homes to pay bills.

Yet home maintenance such as house painting could cost thousands, said Mrs. Fleming.

"In Bermuda your home is a pretty important thing, not many people want to put their home in jeopardy."

Some, particularly black families, fear there's the risk of losing legacies. But Mrs Fleming believe seniors should have options.

"I don't think it is terribly humane to have seniors wilting away, ill, in a house they own. That makes no sense – or living with children who refuse to care for them.

"If that home can be leveraged to get proper care I think that option should be available."

She said reverse mortgages with proper safeguards and regulated by Government could work for those living in their own property.

At the moment seniors can get credit for up to 30 percent of the value of their home from banks.

"With a reverse mortgage hopefully you would get more – at the end the house could be sold or your heirs pay it off.

"I think this is good for seniors too – I am concerned about seniors who live to leave their assets to children who don't want to contribute. It is causing problems."