How does that work? Mortgaging is selling a portion (in an abstract sense) of a house for cash, with an obligation to buy that portion back in installments.
So parent has mortgaged their 100k house for a million - now what? How do they get out of their obligation to repay the mortgage - that is, buy the house back again for at least a million - without incurring penalties?
If there weren't repercussions for defaulting on mortgage payments, anyone could just trick lenders into buying their house immediately.
The parent is referring to the "buy, borrow, die" strategy of wealth accumulation. Would that work in your parent's specific circumstance? Maybe? Maybe not? But taking a low interest loan against assets as a method of wealth generation and tax avoidance is both a viable strategy and an extremely popular one.
So parent has mortgaged their 100k house for a million - now what? How do they get out of their obligation to repay the mortgage - that is, buy the house back again for at least a million - without incurring penalties?
If there weren't repercussions for defaulting on mortgage payments, anyone could just trick lenders into buying their house immediately.