Fairway Home Mortgage and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) have unveiled a new strategic education initiative — the Certified Home Equity Advisor (CHEA) credential — aimed at helping financial and insurance professionals integrate home equity into comprehensive retirement planning with greater competence and ethical grounding.
The CHEA credential program, offered exclusively to NAIFA members, fills a gap in traditional financial education by providing focused training on responsible housing-wealth strategies for clients age 55 and older, including appropriate use of home equity and reverse mortgages within broader retirement frameworks.
Delivered through an eight-hour continuing education curriculum, the program combines academic research, real-world case studies, and fiduciary-aligned planning frameworks to ensure advisors can address housing wealth as a meaningful component of retirement strategies. Participants who complete the training earn the Certified Home Equity Advisor (CHEA) designation and gain access to a professional toolkit featuring consumer education resources, scenario modeling tools, and ongoing updates to support long-term practice.
“Our goal is to help advisors better understand how housing wealth fits into retirement planning conversations while maintaining the highest standards of compliance, ethics, and consumer protection,” said George Bain, Fairway’s vice president of reverse lending initiatives.
John Wheeler, NAIFA president-elect, added: "Housing wealth is one of the largest and most underutilized assets in retirement planning. The CHEA credential reinforces NAIFA's commitment to ethical, client-first education by equipping our members with the knowledge and confidence to address this asset responsibly and collaboratively."
The first CHEA sessions will be offered virtually to NAIFA members in Colorado with two four-hour classes scheduled for March 17 and 19, with additional state offerings planned through the first half of 2026. The program also provides approved continuing education credits for both financial and insurance professionals, including credits applicable toward the CFP designation.
