Reverse Mortgage -...

Reverse MortgageThe official magazine of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association

July-August 2015Volume 8, No. 4

INSIDE:

First interview with DAS Ed Golding

The Business of Counseling

Welcome LESA

P.7

ww

w.n

rmla

onlin

e.or

g

PRSRT STDUS Postage

PAIDMerrifield, VAPermit #1253

The Education ofReza Jahangiri and the Rise of

P.21

P.28

Industry leaders aren’t always the biggest...they’re the fastest. Reverse mortgages require highly specialized servicing and adaptability to rapidly changing regulations. Celink reduces our clients servicing costs and risk through continued innovation.

The value of A STRONG ALLY: INNOVATION.

celink.com | (844) 228-2101For more information, please contact Katie Kirkham, Director of Client Relations at (844) 228-2101.

celink ad series--innovation--RR.indd 1 4/23/15 2:26 PM

July-August 2015Volume 8, No. 4

C o n t e n t s

12 The Education of Reza Jahangiri and the Rise of AAG How team and culture built the leading lender By Marty Bell

SPECIAL SECTION: THE BUSINESS OF COUNSELING

21 Sustaining Counseling: Great idea, valuable service, but underfunded By Mark Olshaker

24 The Ongoing Evolution of HECM Counseling: A talk with HUD’s John Olmstead | By Darryl Hicks

25 A Day in the Life of a Counselor By Jessica Hoefer

Columns 3 In Reverse The Drama of Business | By Marty Bell

5 Peter Bell: Balanced Viewpoint Preparing for the New Era

30 CRMP: Across the Kitchen Table Aloha Spirit: Originating in Hawaii | By Larry Lau

Monthly Features 4 Scribes Meet this month’s contributors

10 Borrower Chronicles: Our HECM Lets Us Do Good Things | By Mark Olshaker

32 MemberNews/MemberProfiles Who’s Who in Reverse Mortgages

34 Bulletins: News from NRMLA, Washington and beyond

36 Numbers: The Shifting Top Ten

PUBLISHERPeter Bell

[email protected]

EDITORMarty Bell

[email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITORDarryl Hicks

[email protected]

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATORJessica Hoefer

STAFF WRITERMark Olshaker

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTStephen Irwin

NRMLA EXECUTIVECOMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS

Joe DeMarkey, Reverse Mortgage FundingReza Jahangiri, AAG

DESIGNERLisa Toji-Blank, Toji Design

ADVERTISING SALESSarah Aaronson

[email protected]

Reverse Mortgage is the officialpublication of the National Reverse

Mortgage Lenders Association.The magazine is published every

two months. For inquiries regarding association membership and/or

magazine subscriptions, please callLinda Latimore at 202-939-1793.Advertising and editorial inquiries

should be directed to 202-939-1745 [email protected].

Association & Subscription Contact:National Reverse Mortgage

Lenders Association1400 16th St., NW, Suite 420

Washington, DC 20036202-939-1760

[email protected]: www.nrmlaonline.org

Consumers: www.reversemortgage.org

Advertising & Editorial Contact:National Reverse Mortgage

Lenders Association1400 16th St., NW, Suite 420

Washington, DC 20036202-939-1760

[email protected]

©2015 National Reverse MortgageLenders Association

Talking HeadsEd Golding, HUD: New Principal DAS forHousing Discusses Priorities

7

Fred Thompson:Celebrity Colleague

18

Welcome LESA Some Borrowers’ New Best FriendBy Paul Fiore

28

2 REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2015

Partner with Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF), and be confident that you’ll get highly competitive pricing—and that your borrowers will receive industry-leading service and support throughout the life of the loan. From origination through servicing, our experienced and knowledgeable team maintains a consistently high level of service and attention to detail. Your customers—and your reputation—deserve nothing less.

AND DISCOVER THE RMF DIFFERENCE.WORK WITH THE INDUSTRY’S ONLY PORTFOLIO LENDER

© 2015 Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC, 1455 Broad St., 2nd Floor, Bloomfield, NJ 07003. NMLS ID # 1019941. Not for consumer use. L158-Exp042016RMF14259-0415

To learn more, visit partners.reversefunding.com or call 877.820.5314 (option 5)

REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2015 3

In Reverse

SAGAS OF HOW BUSINESSES ARE CREATED AND evolve have always piqued my interest. I find the epicnovels of Theodore Dreiser, the muckrakers of the turn of the century, contemporary tales of Silicon Valley (includ-ing HBO’s comedic perspective) are all a fun and enlight-ening investment of time. Perhaps this penchant comes from the fact that NRMLA president and CEO Peter Bell and my father, Jerry, started a two-person business from scratch in his mid-twenties manufacturing medical equipment (canes, walkers, bedrails) that grew into a publicly-traded company with hundreds of employees in various locations. This saga very much occupied and shaped our young lives. (Always modest, when people asked him what he did, our father would say, “We bend aluminum.”) So it is with delight that this month we embark on a new feature that I hope will become a staple, chronicling the progress of NRMLA member companies. For our launch, we could have gone alphabetically or by volume

and in each case ended up with the same subject, AAG. (The Education of Reza Jahangiri and the Rise of AAG, p. 12) Over time, we intend to cover a wide swath of com-panies large and small who provide a variety of services to each other and to elder Americans While we’re on serving elder Americans, one of the more impressive features of the reverse mortgage process to me has been the creation of a third-party counseling network. While a government statute can make such a process mandatory, it is then left in the hands of private businesses to sustain themselves. This month we asked our staff to report on The Business of Counseling. Staff writer Mark Olshaker surveys the industry and assesses their needs (p. 21); Darryl Hicks speaks with HUD Housing Specialist John Olmstead, who has been with the Office of Housing Counseling since its inception in 2012, on future plans (p. 24); and our newest staff member, Communi-cations Coordinator Jessica Hoefer walks you through “A Day in the Life of a Counselor” (p.26) It’s still too early in the implementation process to stop explaining the idiosyncrasies of financial assessment. So in “Welcome LESA” (p. 28 ), AAG’s Paul Fiore introduces you to the Life Expectancy Set Aside to help borrowers fulfill their loan obligations. A paramount objective of any trade association is to provide a forum in which members can share good ideas and learn from each other. We hope that each company’s story will inspire you. Early in my professional life, the great journalist Jimmy Breslin once said to me, “Everyone steals ideas. Just make sure you steal the good ones.”

Marty Bell, Editor

The Drama of Business

Stay informedRead our Weekly ReportJoin NRMLA — nrmlaonline.org


Scribes Meet This Month’s Contributors

Paul Fiore

(Meet LESA, p. 28)As executive vice president of retail lending,

Paul is responsible for the management

and production of three loan officer call

centers, staffed by approximately 260 loan

officers, in Orange, CA, Atlanta, GA and New York, NY. Paul

started with AAG in June 2009 and has helped transform the sales

function at one of the largest originators in the industry. Paul was

previously the chief learning officer at Senior Lending Network

(World Alliance Financial), where he developed Senior Lending

Network University, a training program that coached loan officers

on how to sell reverse mortgages over the phone. He has been a

speaker at various NRMLA and MBA meetings on the topic of

effective reverse mortgage sales strategies.

Mark Olshaker

(Sustaining Counseling p. 21 and Borrower Chronicles, p. 10)our staff writer, is a best-selling author of

fiction and non-fiction and an accomplished

researcher in the areas of crime and medi-

cine. Olshaker has written 14 books in all, including the New York

Times Number 1 bestseller “Mindhunters” and most recently “Law

& Disorder,” both with former FBI Agent John Douglas. He has

also produced 12 documentary films, the latest being Who Killed the

Lindbergh Baby? for NOVA on PBS. Olshaker is a former reporter

for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who now resides in Washington

and has built a large following for his MindhuntersInc.com crime

blog, which argued

Amanda Knox’s

innocence from

the getgo.

Darryl Hicks

(Talking Heads, p. 7)is the Vice President, Communications

for NRMLA where he writes our Weekly

Report and administers our CRMP pro-

gram. He roots for the Steelers and the

Phillies and reads books on World War II history as he rides

the Metro to work each morning.

Jessica Hoefer

(A Day in the Life of a Counselor, p. 25)is the Communications Coordinator for

Dworbell, Inc., where she is also the

Member Services Coordinator for NAIPC

and assists with the publication of Reverse Mortgage Magazine

and Tax Credit Advisor. She came to NRMLA from

the National Geographic Society. She is an avid

reader, a theatre junkie, and loves to travel.

Larry Lau, CRMP

(CRMP: Across the Kitchen Table, p. 30)Hawaii native Larry Lau is a Certified

Reverse Mortgage Professional. Most recently,

Larry joined the ranks of Security 1 Lending

as a Branch Manager. Larry was born and raised on the Big Island

and is currently headquartered in Honolulu. Larry has a total of

nine years with the Finance Industry and interestingly, he has orig-

inated HECMs on five different Hawaiian Islands in that time.


BalancedViewpoint

FOUR DEVELOPMENTS HAVE OCCURRED SINCE OUR last issue of Reverse Mortgage magazine that launch the business into a new era. Financial assessment finally became an integral part of the HECM origination process, in an effort to try to as-sure that these loans are made to homeowners who have a likelihood of successful use of the tool to preserve their ability to stay in their home as they age. Flexibility has been provided for applicants with a marginal outlook for success by permitting the use of set-asides and other tools to compensate for borderline eligibility. The non-borrowing spouse dilemma, an issue that has confused many current and would-be borrowers and their families, generated substantial adverse press and brought closer regulatory scrutiny has been addressed – for the most part – by HUD’s most recent policy. There are still procedures to be determined and implemented, and com-municated properly to those affected, but many aspects of the issue have been put behind us. The CFPB has fired a shot across the bow, telling the reverse mortgage industry it doesn’t like the way we ad-vertise our product. The Bureau has declined, thus far, to explain explicitly what it thinks is wrong with the adver-tising and what would be more appropriate. Instead, they have very publicly announced that their staff looked at some ads and showed them to several small focus groups and a few individual consumers – and all agreed that re-verse mortgage ads are misleading. Newspapers around the country granted the CFPB press machine the coverage it sought and the story has been covered widely. Finally, in just the past two months, 600,000 Boom-ers – my contemporaries – have entered the age cohort of HECM borrowers. We’re turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 per day. Nearly 80% of us own our homes according to a National Association of Realtors survey. The NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index, a quarterly measure of relative movement in home equity possessed by homeowners age 62 and older, has nearly returned to

its pre-recession level. So the market opportunity for reverse mortgages is growing rapidly. Together, these four items lead us into a new era for the reverse mortgage industry, an era that offers enormous opportunity. Those capable of embracing the future will understand what this means. Oth-ers might be dismissive and feel that the business is just getting too hard, too regulated, and therefore no longer worth the effort. This new era calls for a sophisticated industry with a workforce that is knowledgeable and intellectually curious about demographic trends, issues of health and welfare, per-sonal finance, money management and many other matters associated with serving an aging clientele. On top of that, we need reverse mortgage professionals with empathy and compassion for our clients, who are able to understand that no two households are alike and that at the stage of life many of our clients deal with us, they need care, concern, trustworthiness, accessibility, responsiveness and respect. There is a lot for all of us to learn to become the sophis-ticated industry we must be to thrive and prosper from the market opportunity blossoming before us. It’s time to embrace the future and move forward. Building a stron-ger, smarter, more insightful reverse mortgage industry has been part of NRMLA’s mission from the beginning. You can count on NRMLA to use all of our channels, our conferences, our committees (including a new education committee just created by the Board at its June meeting), the Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional (CRMP) des-ignation, our publications, communications and websites(including a new soon-to-be launched member website) to help build the knowledge our industry’s professionals will need. We hope you will all avail yourselves of the educa-tional opportunities we present. It’s not every day that a business gets an opportunity to re-invent itself.

Preparing forthe New Era

By Peter Bell, President of NRMLA

Peter Bell

RM


You and your clients deserve the best, and at Urban Financial of America, LLC (UFA), you’ll receive the best selection of products - including UFA’s HomeSafe jumbo loan - along with competitive pricing and the support you need to be successful.

Committed Partners Industry Experts Premier Products

LEVERAGE THE LEADERSHIP OF THE NATION’S#1 WHOLESALE REVERSE MORTGAGE LENDER*

* Since December 2011. Based on trailing 12 months’ endorsement volume. Source: Reverse Market Insight. For business and professional use only. Not for consumer distribution.

UFA’s HomeSafe reverse mortgage is a proprietary product of Urban Financial of America, LLC, and is not affiliated with the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program. Currently available in AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, HI, IL, NY and TX. NMLS #2285 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org); Corporate Office: 8909 South Yale Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74137. Not all products and options are available in all states. Terms subject to change without notice. ©2015 Urban Financial of America, LLC. All Rights Reserved. CALIFORNIA BUSINESS NAME: URBAN FINANCIAL GROUP OF AMERICA, LLC. NEBRASKA BUSINESS NAME: REVERSE IT! LLC UFA 204 [Exp 7/2016]

1-855-77-URBAN (855-778-7226) • www.ufawholesale.com

Join the leader who is taking the industry forward and setting new standards.

®


TalkingHeads

ON HIS FIRST DAY AS PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT Secretary for Housing, Edward Golding was asked by the Office of Public Affairs to sit for his official photograph – instead, as a playful joke, he considered sending over a photo of Albert Einstein. Five weeks later, when I shook Golding’s hand prior to sitting for this interview, I noticed the resemblance right away. And while he may not be a world-famous physicist, Golding is a gifted economist, who has spent the past quarter century working in the mortgage finance indus-try and advocating for policies that strengthen access to affordable housing. Most recently, he was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and one of the chief architects behind the Administration’s policies on housing finance reform. Golding began his career at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the Savings and Loan Crisis and then joined Freddie Mac, where for the next 23 years he held a variety of senior positions from investor relations to strategy and research. Prior to his service at HUD, Edward Golding was a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute where he played an instrumental role in launching the Housing Finance Policy Center, a leading research voice on housing finance matters. In one of his first public interviews, Golding sat down with Reverse Mortgage magazine to discuss his priorities for the balance of the Obama Administration.

Reverse Mortgage: Do you see value in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage?

Ed Golding: The HECM can be a very important tool because it pro-vides a solution for people to age in place and live in the single-family housing of their choice for as long as possible. When someone reaches retirement age roughly half of their financial wealth is tied up in the home. Most retirees don’t have large bank accounts. They may have Social Security, a small pension and a few IRAs. It’s important that they be able to use the equity that has accumulated in the home for many years, so yes, the reverse mortgage can be an important tool when done right.

RM: Do you have concerns about any aspects of the HECM? If so, what is the Department doing to address these concerns?

EG: You want people to use their equity wisely and to understand the terms of the mortgage. Education is so important and reverse mortgages can be a complicated in-strument. I’ve been in mortgage finance for a long time, but I still find myself going back to our experts and asking them what happens with the cash flows in a particular situ-ation. Fortunately, a lot of the uncertainty with cash flows happens further out. Life expectancies have been increas-ing, which is a good thing, but unlike a forward mortgage which on average lasts seven years, with a reverse mortgage you’re asking people to imagine their lives 15 years into the future.

Edward Golding, HUD New Principal DAS for Housing Discusses Priorities By Darryl Hicks

Talking Heads continued on page 8

Edward Golding


TalkingHeads

A 65-year old person who takes out a reverse mort-gage today needs to imagine life at age 80. We did two things to address these concerns, which included limiting the amount of funds that can be dispersed upfront, so that borrowers have access to their funds for a longer period of time, and making sure that they have the proper resources to pay property taxes and insurance. Those are two import-ant protections, but I reiterate that borrowers need to be adequately informed. It doesn’t matter whether you are 25 or 65 years old, there is a broad swath of financial sophisti-cation that has nothing to do with intelligence. Some people really get into understanding the numbers and contingen-cies, while others don’t have the energy or desire. Lenders have an obligation to provide useful guidance, which may include explaining reverse mortgages in a variety of ways, so that consumers understand what they mean now and how they could be impacted many years into the future.

RM: When you worked at Freddie Mac, did you ever examine reverse mortgages as a product option?

EG: Not really, because if you look at its history, the HECM was ideally suited to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae was created in 1938 to support FHA, while Freddie Mac was formed in 1968 to support the savings and loan industry. One area I would like to explore is whether we can expand the number of investors that finance reverse mortgages. It’s not always a natural product to go into Ginnie Mae securities. Ginnie Mae has done a great job of providing financing and it will continue to do so, but it would be beneficial to have a diversified investor base.

RM: What can the industry do to assist HUD in its role as both mortgage insurer and regulator of HECM lenders?

EG: As I mentioned earlier, education is a key component of the HECM program, whether it is through direct contact with clients or through advertising. This is an area where I believe HUD and the industry can collaborate to make sure the proper message is being delivered to potential borrowers. The industry at large takes education seriously and realizes that this product is not for everyone and that some homeowners may be better served by other options. On our end, FHA needs to ensure that our mortgagee let-ters provide clearer guidance and we’ll continue working

with the industry on this. We are also putting things into the HECM Handbook (4235.1) so that you don’t have to search for mortgagee letters and worry about which ones are dated and which ones are superseded.

RM: Does the Office of Housing interface with CFPB on policy matters? Sometimes it seems they’re moving in opposite directions.

EG: The CFPB is an independent agency that enforces a different set of statutes. We do have discussions with CFPB staff from time to time. We want to make sure that regulations are consistently enforced as much as possible and that there is no unnecessary overlap, whether it’s with disclosures or servicing.

RM: People who move up within an organization often have some ideas they now have the opportunity to pursue. Do you have ideas of your own for the HECM program?

EG: I want to explore how reverse mortgages are financed and what can be done to diversify the investor base. We are largely the only game in town and it would be nice if the private market could develop some products. I think you’d have a healthier market if it wasn’t all government.

RM: The Obama Administration has encouraged cross departmental collaboration. HUD has worked closely with Education, HHS, Treasury on Choice Neighbor-hoods, for instance. Is HUD working with the otheragencies on promoting and teaching approaches to retirement funding?

EG: As noted above, we interface and meet with CFPB on issues where there’s mutual interest and to support our policies through their consumer protection and education efforts. We also work with nine HUD-approved HECM Counseling Agencies across the country to ensure that bor-rowers are well-educated about how the product works and their options for post-retirement funding sources. In April, we awarded $36 million in grants to hundreds of national, regional, and local organizations to cover the costs of housing counseling services, including HECM counseling. Addition-ally, we regularly interact with major reverse mortgage stake-holders, like NRMLA (as you know, we had several staff at the recent NRMLA conference), to ensure that HECM policies are best meeting consumer and lender needs.

Talking Heads continued from page 7

RM


A teAm is behind every winner

• We help you serve your customers and earn more revenue

• Your flexible partner, from originations, servicing, securitization, to REO asset management

• Fastest closing loans in the industry

• Market-leading pricing

• Advanced, yet flexible technology

• Continued education, training and marketing support

we Offer wholesale Lending,Correspondent Lending andAggregation Partnering.

become a Partner 888-348-5710

partners.rmsnav.com

NMLS Unique Identifier: 107636


BorrowerChronicles

WHEN MOST PEOPLE RETIRE, THEY WANT TO TAKE time off, settle down and relax. Not so for Lawrence “Larry” Grillo and his wife Linda, of Weymouth, Massa-chusetts. Though he is an avid golfer, when Larry retired from sales and management in the pharmaceutical indus-try, he and Linda signed up to work part-time for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where they were dispatched to sites of natural disasters to aid survivors with obtaining government assistance. “We had a friend at FEMA and he thought we were good candidates for this type of work,” Larry relates. A reverse mortgage has allowed this dynamic couple to pursue their interests and passions without worrying about running out of money. Though Linda is no longer involved with FEMA, Larry remains on call, with each assignment requiring at least a month-long commitment. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, he was dispatched to the devastated New Jersey Shore where he helped the victims “get through the bureaucratic maze.” Later in the same crisis, he worked in New York City, contacting people who had had to leave their homes, discerning their current status and gathering information for HUD to help them return to their former lives or, if necessary, resettle. He has been actively involved with these emergency relief efforts for 10 years now. Linda and Larry met more than 50 years ago at Peabody High School, in the town of the same name

north of Boston. Larry went to work here in the States for the British pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome. After it merged with Glaxo, another British company, in 1995 to become the world’s third largest pharmaceutical concern, Larry took early retirement and went to work for PDI, Inc., a healthcare services contract sales organiza-tion. Larry put together and organized independent sales teams to market products for both emerging and estab-lished companies. His main thrust was selling products for drug giant Pfizer that didn’t mesh with those sold by its in-house sales force. Linda was trained as a teacher and opted to stay at home when the first of their two sons was born. A few years after the second boy came along, the Grillos adopted a baby girl from Korea. Since then, backed by her experi-ence in education and their accumulated wisdom, Linda has become an advocate for adoptive parents and a highly respected expert on emotional issues involving parents and children of adoption, particularly from overseas. Problems, such as acting out and fear of abandonment, were not as well understood when the Grillos adopted, and Larry says Linda is helping other parents relate and deal with these challenges in ways they and others of their generation wish they could have been helped. When it came time to plan out their retirement years, they were already familiar with the reverse

Our HECM Lets Us Do Good Things By Mark Olshaker

Borrower Chronicles continued on page 11


BorrowerChronicles

mortgage concept and had seen it from two distinct per-spectives. “Both of our parents had had reverse mortgages,” Larry explains. “My parents had had a bad experience with one of the early ones – you had to pay it back within a cer-tain amount of time. My father didn’t figure he’d live that long, so he wasn’t worried about it. But when both of them were still alive when the payment came due and they didn’t have the money to pay it off, my brothers and I decided to take care of it. My mother and father both stayed in the home until they passed away.” Linda’s father, on the other hand, had the opposite experience. When her mother died, her dad took out a reverse mortgage and, together with his Social Security payments, was able to live out his remaining years in com-fort and security. It was security, rather than any immediate financial need, that motivated Linda and Larry to seek their own HECM. “We decided to look into it,” says Larry, “to have money to use if and when we needed it and not have to

burden our children.” They contacted Reverse Mortgage Funding and worked with HECM Loan Specialist Stephen Pepe. “It was a pleasure working with Steve,” Larry recalls. “He’s a real professional.” They paid off a home equity line of credit to Bank of America. “We use the reverse mortgage as a line of credit and look on it as insurance, in case our retirement funds dry up or property taxes rise, as they always seem to in Massa-chusetts.” What the HECM primarily brought was peace of mind. When Larry is not rushing off to disaster sites for FEMA, he and Linda maintain an active lifestyle. They go to the country club as often as they can and Larry plays golf there several times a week. “We now have seven grand-children, spread out over Massachusetts, New York and Georgia, and we like to see them as often as we can. And we want to keep travelling.” And with regard to their living arrangements, because of their reverse mortgage, Larry notes, “As long as we want to, we can stay where we are.”

Borrower Chronicles continued from page 10

RM


AT LUNCHTIME ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN MAY, the Break Room on the first floor of American Advisors Group (AAG), headquarters in Orange, California, is packed with employees lined up to make a $5 contribu-tion to Willow International (formerly the Kwagala Proj-ect), a charity to support women rescued from human trafficking in Uganda, and to taste 13 variations of chili prepared by colleagues competing in a cook-off. Willow is just one of the beneficiaries of the newly formed AAG Foundation that is also now focusing on Alzheimer’s and other senior issues. On the buffet you find beef chili, pork chili, chicken chili, chocolate chili, white chili, and the vast ethnic diversity of the staffers in line reflects the menu. Reza Jahangiri, the company’s founder and CEO, enters the room in slacks and an open neck dress shirt. Some of the staffers circle around him, but the room doesn’t come to a halt as rooms often do when the boss arrives. At 37 (and yet already a business owner for 10 years), Jahangiri mixes in with the crowd rather than assuming any empirical posture. When Jahangiri founded the company as a broker and a sideline to his primary businesses a decade ago, he had 10 employees. In 2010, when he decided to dive in full time and

began to build, he had 35. Earlier this year the company wel-comed its one-thousandth associate and the packed training rooms in the floors above indicate the growth continues. In 2014, AAG emerged as the leading lender in volume in the reverse mortgage industry closing 13,297 loans, in-cluding both retail and wholesale. It has remained atop the pack in 2015 with 4,830 loans through April, nearly twice as many as any other lender. This is all the more remarkable because as recently as 2010, AAG was not even among the top ten lenders. The company now has monthly overhead of $15 million and revenue of over $250 million. The image of a chili cook-off may seem a minor point in a story that chronicles the emergence of a business, and yet it is a symbol of the corporate culture created by Jahangiri with support from a small team of colleagues that is the foundation for the company’s growth. In an industry in which many companies are scattered across the country, Jahangiri chose to build upon a centralized model with the key executives and vast majority of managers and staff in one location. AAG now occupies seven floors of the eight story glass tower (an FBI office is on the eighth floor) on

The Education of Reza Jahangiri and the Rise of AAGHow team and culture built the leading lender By Marty Bell

Reza Jahangiri continued on page 13

The Exec Squad: Jahangiri, Verst, Fiore, McGrath and Mullins.


Chapman Avenue with a view into Angel’s Stadium from many of the windows. Some departments have recently been moved to another tower across the plaza. Congregating as a company daily has enabled a sense of close teamwork, con-stant ongoing training with rapid and thorough response to industry changes, face-to-face management, brainstorm-ing when issues arise, opportunities for employees to grow within the company structure, control, care for each other’s families and the opportunity to share in fun with staff. “I came from Dish Network,” says Martin Lenoir, the chief marketing officer, “And this isn’t an aggressive, hard-nosed, stressful environment. We want people to have a well-rounded, balanced family life. Reza understands that this is a marathon.” “We are diligent about our strategy that everyone here should really enjoy coming to work,” says Teague McGrath,chief creative officer. “We bring the whole company together for Town Halls to update them on everything going on, we have golf tournaments and softball games. And, we raise money and provide support for our employ-ees in times of need.” “Reza is very sensible,” says Kimberly Smith, Senior Vice President, Wholesale. “Actually Reza is frighteningly sensible.” “In addition to our strong culture, I think we have the right ingredients of the right business model at a chal-lenging time with the right people running it and capital behind us,” Jahangiri says. “We are centralized when our competitors chose a more shotgun approach, we invested more than anyone else in the brand, our team has experi-ence and a lot of tough lessons behind them. We are very cognizant of the fact that we are the largest right now, but we still have the mindset of an underdog.”

Precocious entrepeneur TJ Jahangiri came from a modest military Iranian family and Azi Shashani was raised upper-class, distantly related to the family of the Shah via cousins and marriages. They married when he was 17 and she was 15 and her family disowned her for marrying outside of her standing. But TJ, a scrappy entrepreneur, was still able to build a sub-stantial business in Tehran on government construction contracts. When the Iranian Revolution struck in January of 1979, and the Shah and the Pahlavi dynasty were run out of the country and rule fell in the hands of the Aya-tollah Ruhollah Khomeini, TJ fled with his wife and two

sons, his mother and her sister to the south of France, leav-ing all his assets behind. The younger son, Reza, was three months old at the time. After six months, the exiled family came to the Washington, DC area and lived for two years in Bethesda before relocating to Orange County, California. In the 1980s, TJ reestablished a construction business that was hit hard when Iraq invaded Kuwait, oil prices soared and the stock market crashed in 1991. “My father had a heavy entrepreneurial spirit that he passed down to my brother, my sister and me. He believed you never give up,” Jahangiri says. “But his knowledge from Iran never translated into the American mindset.” By the 1990s, TJ had entered the cardiac imaging busi-ness. In 2000, he, his oldest son and 21 year old Reza, just graduated from UC Irvine and attending Loyola Law School, formed HeartSavers, a business that set up cardiac imaging facilities and included a relationship with Johns Hopkins Hospital. “My dad and I tried to work together for years,” Jahangiri says, “but we had different mindsets. He was very transac-tional and I was long-term, cash-flow sensitive.” To protect his future he and his father parted ways professionally, Reza set up a separate company, Imaging Venture Group, which bought distressed assets from banks and resold them to hospitals. On a first date in 2004, the woman Jahangiri invited out ran the reverse mortgage department at a local bank and, over dinner, he became instantly fascinated with the idea of the product. “I loved that it was obscure and so misunderstood. I saw a gap between the facts and perception. And it was not part of the credit bubble. I saw an opportunity to create a

Reza Jahangiri continued from page 12


AAG staff enjoys the chili cook-off.



business that provided seniors with a solution to a looming social issue,” he says. The relationship didn’t sustain itself, but Jahangiri’s fasci-nation with reverse mortgages did. So as a side business, he set up a brokerage office, got licensed in California and worked with Financial Freedom as a lender where Kimberly Kerrigan was his account executive, and sold loans largely utilizing a direct mail approach. (Little did he know at the time, but Kerrigan would join him later to grow his business.) By 2007, Jahangiri left the health care space behind and moved into reverse mortgages full-time. He first brought in Austen Verst to run sales and marketing. Verst, now EVP of production, brought a methodical approach to building businesses to scale. Together, the duo moved into a 4,000 square foot space. By 2008, they had a staff of 25, were growing and leased a 10,000 square foot space. But the timing was inopportune, and within a year, the recession hit. “The senior mindset changed,” Jahangiri says. “They lost confidence in home values and no longer trusted loan products. It was a tough time.” In addition, in September of 2008, AAG found itself faced with a reputational crisis: at its current staff size, the company depended upon third-party vendors for certain tasks, including marketing materials. Among them was a direct mail piece that characterized reverse mortgages as a product of President Obama’s stimulus plan. It implied the program was a government provided benefit. The Massa-chusetts Division of Banks accused AAG of “deceptivemarketing” and ordered them to stop selling via false or misleading direct mail. Early in 2010, Massachusetts banned AAG from doing business in Massachusetts for two years. The same piece instigated run-ins in several other states that required negotiated fines and settlements.

A turning point “Fear was running through my blood. We realized we needed to be more in control of our marketing and remain conservative. We wondered, should we get smaller and be able to ride this out? Or, do we raise capital and scale while everyone is going the other way, become a bank, grow? We chose the latter. And we were fortunate to find an equity partner in Jacobs Asset Management (JAM) in 2009 that had a depth of experience in the space and appreciated what we had put together.” JAM had previously made a successful investment in

David Peskin’s Senior Lending Network and within 13 months sold at a profit to the Belgium-based KBC Bank. An avid collector of ideas, eager listener and skilled sum-marizer of what he hears, Jahangiri sought advice on building his company from other successful mortgage bankers. When Senior Lending folded shop, Michael Sekits of JAM suggested Jahangiri might benefit from surrounding himself with people with deeper experience in the lending space and take advantage of the availability of some of their key staff. So Jahangiri recruited Chris Mullins to run oper-ations, Paul Fiore to run sales and Teague McGrath to run a new in-house marketing department, requiring Fiore and McGrath to relocate from Long Island to Orange County. “The decision to join AAG was not easy,” said Fiore. “I was moving my family 3000 miles. But we shared a singu-lar focus of what we wanted to accomplish and what the message was going to be. After the crash, there was a lot of skepticism in the public. What was tried and true didn’t work anymore. People were not thrilled with the govern-ment. Government-insured, non-recourse loan fell on deaf ears. So we pulled away from that conversation. Our focus was on reverse mortgages as a retirement and longevity tool, not needs vs. wants. We asked, ‘what is your situation and how can we improve it?’ We wanted to centralize and devote our resources to messaging and training.” Along with Jahangiri and Verst, the three newcomers became a part of the core team that spent large segments of most days in a room together. “Reza set the corporate culture,” Fiore says, “which was ‘let’s not react to tomorrow’s news. Let’s not be jumpers. Let’s stay here 10 to 20 years.’ “When you’re smaller, you don’t silo,” Jahangiri says. “There’s a lot of crossover. If there’s an issue from HR to underwriting to technology, sales conversations, we’d get in a room to brainstorm and troubleshoot.” Nine months after JAM closed on their investment in AAG, the reverse mortgage lender had run through all the cash. The market was shrinking, projections were not what were planned. McGrath, a television producer who had emigrated from Australia, had been brought in by Senior Lending to work on the positioning of their television commercials featuring Robert Wagner. He came away from that expe-rience sold on the celebrity spokesperson as an approach to building a brand. So he made the rounds of Hollywood agents for AAG trying to persuade them that hawking reverse mortgages would not be a career destroyer and he



settled on Peter Graves, one time star of the 1950s series Fury but best known for his role on Mission:Impossible, as the face of AAG. But within six months of filming his first spot, Graves died. It was another pivotal moment for Jahangiri and his team. The company had but one percent of a shrinking market in the wake of a recession and they were selling leads to produce cash flow. “But we believed in our approach and in ourselves,” Jahangiri says. “We kept iterating on the sales process, iterating on the marketing approach.” “I brought in a lot of sales training,” Fiore says. “I lis-tened in on calls in our call center. I asked everyone, ‘what did you hear from your client?’ “I had to adjust to the difference in sales approaches between New York and California. In New York, the sales-people are very direct. You have to teach them to be more emotional, a little bit softer. “In California, you have to teach them how to have a conversation that leads to a specific sale instead of just being nice to somebody. In that first year, we had a lot of nice conversations, but we didn’t get a lot of business. “But an advantage of a call center model is that when someone says something that is incorrect, you can fix it right away. With face-to-face sales, you convert conversa-tions to loans at a higher rate. But a call center is a better volume opportunity. “We also found that people who called responding to a television commercial are warmer and more welcoming than those who just fill out forms online.”

Putting a Face on the Brand While Fiore improved sales, McGrath did the rounds at the Hollywood agencies yet again, searching for a new spokesperson. After considering a long list of candidates, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin and singer Kenny Rogers, McGrath determined the best candidate to provide the company with credibility was former senator and actor Fred Thompson. (Note: See accompanying story on p. 18). McGrath conducted exhaustive consumer research to confirm his choice, including visiting senior centers, armed with episodes of “Law & Order” in which Thompson por-trayed District Attorney Arnie Branch for six seasons. There were initial concerns that Thompson, who had made a brief run for the Republican nomination for Pres-

ident in 2008, would be perceived as too partisan. But the research persuaded McGrath that Fred’s acting career balanced that out. Despite the results of the research, Jahangiri told McGrath he would never convince Thompson to accept the role and put a trip to Las Vegas on the table as a prize if McGrath could pull it off. McGrath won the prize. Thompson signed on in 2010. Through May of that year, AAG was surviving on a bridge loan and lead sales. But in June, everything started to change. “At that point, we were living and dying by every com-mercial,” McGrath says. “We were very careful with our media buying, continually searching for the best rates. Back then, we could only spend per month what we now spend per day.” “We found the combination of the right marketing approach and the right spokesperson,” Jahangiri says. “We turned to a very multi-educational, thorough sales process. We kept a hypersensitive eye on systems, process, metrics and analytics in connection with the sales force. We were able to pinpoint the right sales formula that achieves the greatest results, and to have the right mix of what gener-ates business, with the right cost per fund.” Generally independent of spirit and so competitive by nature you can see it immediately on the golf course or even at the ping pong table, Jahangiri was an outlier from industry collaboration at this point, operating in a silo and more concerned with proving his company’s validity. In 2011, AAG broke into the industry’s top ten lender list at ninth place with 1,815 loans endorsed. All of these loans were direct-to-consumer, retail transactions. And, in fact, looking exclusively at retail, AAG had the fourth largest volume. But of the eight companies above AAG on the list, seven also dealt in third-party, wholesale loans. “I’ve never admitted this to anyone, but it was a men-tal challenge for me as we considered entering into the




third-party channel,” Jahangiri says. “With wholesale, you just don’t have that same level of control and sensitivity that’s on your sales floor.” During this time, Jahangiri contacted Kimberly Smith (now Kerrigan) who, as you may recall, had been his account executive for both Financial Freedom and One Reverse when AAG was a broker. “It was not surprising that wholesale would give Reza pause,” says Smith. “With a central call center, the company model ensured tremendous control of the process. But I ex-plained to Reza that a successful wholesale business required a very thorough vetting process, building relationships so you know who the clients are. And even then, you still won’t be right 100% of the time. There are going to be risks.” “Kim really helped me become comfortable with the process,” Jahangiri says. In 2012, growth of AAG surged. Retail endorsements were on a pace that would more than double the previous year’s record volume. But rather than just be giddy about his success, Jahangiri realized this would require adjust-ments. Among them, he acknowledged that he needed to be more involved in the industry conversation and the public policy process and became more actively involved with the other lenders at NRMLA. (Jahangiri’s commit-ment to the organization and the industry has earned him the current co-chairmanship of NRMLA, a position he shares with Joe DeMarkey of Reverse Mortgage Funding.)“This was another pivotal point,” Jahangiri says. “We could’ve kept going without adding partners. But I knew as we were accepted for Ginnie Mae issuance we were going to need a balance sheet. I knew we were going through an era of further FHA policy changes.” In July of that year, Jahangiri began negotiations with the private equity firm of Friedman, Fleischer and Lowe. FFL committed “a couple of hundred million of equity facility for us to draw down upon if needed,” Jahangiri says. Just 30 days before the deal was to close, HUD released the actuarial report that showed the HECM book of busi-ness was not doing well and a draw on Treasury was required to support the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund. “I remember saying, ‘we’re doing really well right now. We’re setting record numbers in growth,’” Jahangiri says. “But I knew things were going to get choppy. We were starting to head into Congressional hearing season with an MMI fund with issues. And we were fortunate we found a

real team-oriented capital partner in FFL that had experi-ence in capitalizing growing businesses like ours.”

Scaling for Growth By the end of 2012, AAG had dipped its toe into the wholesale waters, attracted Smith to come on board to run that division and rose to seventh on the top ten list. As Smith developed her team, wholesale would grow to 15 percent of total volume in 2013 and over 25 percent of volume when AAG became the top lender in 2014. “Our team built a process that Reza could walk through and understand,” Smith says. “We mitigated risk by being very aggressive with online training and live events and requiring that brokers all submit their marketing materials to be reviewed by our attorneys. We have terminated people who were not compliant. It’s been fun to watch Reza get acclimated to this. But he still can get frustrated that you can’t control everyone’s behavior.” “I’ve grown to love that channel,” Jahangiri says. “It raises your level of customer service. They are all very com-petitive so we have to be customer-centric.” With the new financial foundation, the size of the AAG executive team was able to double. The FFL staff, which had guided the growth of other businesses, encour-aged Jahangiri to reach outside the box and bring in people with experience in scaling other businesses. “In my position, you need to have the ability to spot talent and be honest with yourself about areas of weakness within the organization,” Jahangiri says. “You hit times in the company when you need to raise the business to dif-ferent tiers of scale. And you need to bring in people who have seen the next three, four or five steps in scale to help you build accordingly.” The five man executive team that had shepherded the company until now was expanded to include Lenoir from the Dish Network in digital marketing; Matt Engle, previ-ously executive vice president of finance for the real estate financing firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank as Chief Financial Officer; and Sean Bobbitt, who had vast expe-rience in larger mortgage companies, as Executive Vice President of Operations. Recently, Chris Mullins became the first of the original team to depart. “I first interviewed with AAG in 2009,” Bobbitt says. “Reza told me then he was totally dedicated to the cause of reverse mortgages. From that time until 2013, there was a lot of money to be had, a lot of distressed assets in the for-




ward mortgage space. But like Reza promised, they stayed committed to this space. That really impressed me. And so I came on board.” “We’ve been evolving,” Jahangiri says. In May of 2014, we added our national field sales channel, which consists of approximately 100 retail LOs—our feet on the street. We’ve added leadership, revenue streams, became a sub-stantial servicer and a Ginnie Mae issuer. Yet, I believe that our core centralized, direct-to-consumer business support-ed by our well-known brand has insulated us from some of the third-party dynamics that would affect us if we were, say, 80 percent wholesale. “At times, when other companies backed off in mar-keting and growth due to policy changes, we kept going. You have to be disciplined in your business model. Just because the market is moving around, doesn’t mean you should. At times, if the pricing doesn’t make sense to us, we’re not going to follow just to play in the market. “We have confidence in the long-term sustainability of the product, and, regardless of what the issue of the mo-ment is, this product will continue to help seniors navigate the retirement crisis with a solid solution.”

Audacity and Reality Reza Jahangiri is a complex mix of calm, incisiveness, openness, fun and audacity. At his wedding at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2013, he played guitar before a band and backup singers and sang a song called “Dumbfounded” he had written to his new wife. This may not sound that auda-cious until you consider the fact that the wife he sang to is Kate Levering, a Tony-nominated musical theater actress for her performance in the 2001 revival of “42nd Street” on Broadway. She also did a six-year stint playing a lawyer in the Lifetime television series “Drop Dead Diva.” In be-tween the birth of their first son, Holden and with a second due in September, Kate starred in a new production of the Broadway classic “A Chorus Line” in Sacramento. They recently moved into a new home they built in Newport Beach along the canals where Jahangiri main-tains his boat. He’s a good athlete, a musician, has great interest in politics, the performing arts, books and has been known to party. It all sounds pretty good, right? But he’s still kept awake at night concerned about the inherent problems of growth, the parts of the business he has no control over, the status of the MMI fund and the regula-

tory sensitive environment. He’s now investing a lot of his time in studying risk management. “I think a weakness of mine that I’m working on now is understanding the portfolio management risk, the servicing book risk,” he says. “Servicing, especially in today’s envi-ronment, is highly scrutinized. And we have a very young book. As it seasons, we have to be cognizant of potential issues. So I’m bringing in talented people to monitor our portfolio, make the right moves, understand how those moves impact pricing and reserve capital for our servicing book. This is not an area of my core competency.” His office in the middle of a hallway of executives on a middle floor of the company’s headquarters is no larger nor more elegant than those of his teammates. Aside from family photos, the one distinguishing diversion is the guitar resting on a rack. “I’m cognizant that I report to a higher power now and have to live up to the board’s expectations,” he says.”I have a responsibility to our shareholders. If I find myself in over my head, I have to come to terms with that and start suc-cession planning to get someone in place with more scale experience over me. If I keep growing with the business, I keep my seat. I think of that every day when I come to work. I don’t think that just because I founded the busi-ness, I have a right to remain here. Right now, I’m less important than the legacy of the business, what it can do for both seniors and our employees. “I want to turn this company into an even more sig-nificant brand that solves issues seniors are facing from financial needs to senior care. In five years, I want us to be offering more products that solve the significant issues seniors are facing.”


RM

Reza weds Kate Levering, Broadway and television actress.

IN A SOCIETY OBSESSED WITH CELEBRITY WORSHIP, no one seems to complain when a star is hawking a movie, a television series or a book via commercials or the talk show circuit. It’s expected. But for some reason, there is frequent criticism when a star represents a product. People tend to be suspect of the credibility. It’s okay for the star to promote the latest end-of-the-world disaster film, but not a save-the-world health or financial solution. Which brings us to Fred Thompson, former Senator, actor, and now the spokesperson for AAG and, to many, the face of reverse mortgages. Marketing directors for compa-nies, other than AAG, have acknowledged that Thompson’s widespread presence on television has helped every company. Despite occasional razzing (usually in opening para-graphs) from reporters looking for a familiar name to give a reader reason to continue on, Thompson is unlike any other spokesperson I have known in his devotion to the product and his participation in the company he rep-resents. I’m sure he’s being paid well, and he refuses to blow his own horn, but it was recognition of the product’s value and respect for those he was invited to work with that encouraged him to select this particular assignment from a number that were offered at the time. Fred Thompson has always been a man with his own strong ideas and convictions. As a prosecutor in the Water-gate investigation and a Republican, he nevertheless had the audacity to attempt to indict Richard Nixon. Despite his conservative credentials, he is a member of both SAG and Actors Equity, the performing arts primary unions. “I fancied myself as independent my whole career,” the former Senator from Tennessee says. “There certainly were times in Congress when the vote was 99-1 and I was the lone dissenter, usually for feel good, meaningless pieces of legislation.” Thompson has a history of making choices based on values rather than convenience. “I don’t want to toot my own morality,” Thompson says. “This was a business decision, sure, but I don’t make any decisions without investigating and making sure it fits in with what I believe in.” Before he agreed to sign on with AAG, he put Teague McGrath, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, through the ringer. McGrath had done his research and knew he had to have Fred Thompson for the job. “I did

extensive research with groups of seniors,” McGrath says. “I went in equipped with episodes of ‘Law & Order,’ then asked, Would you trust him? Would you have him over for dinner? Would you show him your bank balance?” The response was overwhelmingly positive. “But we had to convince him it was the right thing to do,” McGrath says. “It was a long drawn out process. He wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing. He poked holes in our arguments. He attended a NRMLA meeting and sat in the back to get a feel for the industry. When he was on the fence, I rounded up a bunch of sat-isfied borrowers and planned to scatter them throughout LAX when I knew the Senator was arriving and have them stop him and tell him what good experiences they had. But he signed on before I pulled it off.” “I spoke with a lot of consumers on the phone,” Thomp-son says. “They’re just solid folks. We aren’t dealing with people who can’t function. But it was important for many of

Fred ThompsonCelebrity Colleague


Fred Thompson continued on page 19

independent as can be,” Thompson says. “I took respon-sibility for whatever she wanted or needed, but by using her own equity, she felt she was contributing in her own way, and she felt better about herself.” Now in the sixth year of their relationship, AAG CEO Jahangiri considers Thompson a colleague and a mentor. Among other issues, Jahangiri seeks consultation from Thompson when dealing with government policy issues. “That’s the nicest thing anybody can say about me,” Thompson says. “Growing this company has been a col-laborative effort. There has been continual change and reform and we share the view that we keep moving into a better and safer environment for the consumer.” “It was not a bunch of businessmen who got together and conceived a new business,” Thompson says. “This is a regulated industry that was spawned by the government as a protection for a whole lot of people. In that spirit, we encourage people to check it out. And that’s just the be-ginning of an extensive process that includes consultation and close government oversight.”


them to have people to consult with about retirement. And that was a great benefit here, the requirement for consulta-tion with a counselor, as was Reza being one of the most conscientious entrepreneurs I ever encountered.” “The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve been impressed with the product and the industry,” he continues. “This is an industry that has had continuous reform and addressed things that may not have originally been seen as issues. As we’ve learned from experience, the industry has been responsive to the needs of the consumers. So this has been a very satisfying experience. “We have a special responsibility because we’re dealing with seniors…but most of them are younger than I am now.” After seeing one of his early commercials, Thompson’s mother Ruth called him and said she was interested in getting a reverse mortgage on her simple, two-bedroom house in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. “She was one of those people who wanted to feel she was as

Fred Thompson continued from page 18

financial assessment

American Advisors Group (AAG) can help your business stay on top of the

recent financial assessment changes. AAG also provides marketing and

operations support, product and sales training and access to high

quality leads.

Find all the information your business Find all the information your business needs regarding the recent changes

by visiting us at aagwholesale.com.

Searching for more informationon the recent financial assessment changes?

866-964-1109

RM


Liberty-Ad-Training–February.pdf 1 1/20/15 10:37 AM


Sustaining Counseling continued on page 22

“Counseling Requirement for Home Equity Con-version Mortgage (HECM) Borrowers. Section 255(d) of the National Housing Act and the implementing FHA regulations at 24 CFR § 206.41 state that all prospective HECM borrowers must receive reverse mortgage counseling prior to obtaining a HECM. This counseling must be received from eligible coun-selors working for participating agencies approved to provide this statutorily required counseling. “To meet the statutory requirements for obtaining a HECM, the prospective borrower must receive one-on-one reverse mortgage counseling and be issued a HECM counseling certificate. Counselors are allowed to provide the required reverse mortgage counseling to a group of related family members if they are docu-mented on the deed together.”

—HUD Handbook: Home Equity Conversion Mortgages

COUNSELING IS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF THE HECM process, which is a complicated financial product involving the largest asset most borrowers possess. Those eligible for the program are all seniors, and many of them have not taken part in a business-type decision for a long time. Some suffer infirmities that make comprehension more difficult or time consuming. So few in the industry disagree with the requirement. But in practice, is HECM counseling a viable and sus-tainable business model? Our informal survey of the industry presents a decidedly mixed bag. Certainly the most principled and high-minded aspect of the program is the procedural firewall between counsel-ors and lenders that assures counseling remains completely independent and unbiased. Lenders must provide a list of 13 available counselors (8 national intermediaries and 5 local agencies) but cannot steer a client to any one in par-ticular. And counselor fees are not dependent on whether

or not a reverse mortgage closes. In practice, this means that lenders may not hire the counselors or pay for their services. So payment has to come from elsewhere: either the client or a grant. And with the recently implemented Financial Assessment requirements, even HUD acknowledges that counseling sessions will be longer and more detailed. On April 14, HUD awarded $36,293,245 in housing counseling grants to hundreds of national, regional and local organizations, which it stated would assist more than 1.5 million households. While there were several large grants to intermediary organizations – the most substantial was $2,634,743 to Neighborhood Reinvestment Corpora-tion in the District of Columbia and the next highest to Homeownership Preservation Foundation in Minneapolis – these were for all counseling services, not just HECM loans, and most grants ranged from about $11,000 to $14,000. There is widespread agreement throughout the industry that these funds are insufficient. According to one observer: “As the cost of counseling in-creases, the HUD funding falls farther and farther behind.” There are a number of basic factors that impact the business of counseling. First, like a hospital emergency room, a counselor or counseling company may not turn anyone away, regardless of ability to pay. If the client does not have money for the fee, the counselor has two options: Take money from a HUD grant if it is available, or have it wrapped into the reverse mortgage loan, to be financed over time. HUD does not allow a higher amount to be charged if the fee is financed. And since the ratio of counseling sessions to HECM closings is just over 50 percent, there is an almost even chance the financed fee will never be paid. “In theory, with Financial Assessment in place, there will be fewer closings, so less funding coming in,” says Anthony “Tony” Lopes, former Housing Director for Cambridge CreditCounseling Corporation and one of the acknowledgedexperts in the field. “And that can be very difficult to sustain.”

Sustaining CounselingGreat idea, valuable service, but underfunded By Mark Olshaker

T H E B U S I N E S S O F C O U N S E L I N G



From his own experience, Lopes cites appointment cancellations as another issue. “If a counselor schedules four or five sessions a day and one or two are cancelled, that can be a really big problem.” This proves particularly true for individuals or smaller agencies, which have to be able to justify financially train-ing, testing, continuing education and retesting to meet HUD requirements. “To recoup recruiting, training, and testing, and all of the other costs at $125 a session, there’s no big upside,” Lopes ob-serves. “For a small company, it may not be worth the hassle.” If there are an insufficient number of qualified coun-selors, the entire HECM process clogs and potential borrowers are discouraged. Yet at some times, counselors are insufficiently busy. There are fluctuations in volume based on season, market rates and conditions, and HUD program changes. Typically, when HUD issues a relevant new Mortgagee Letter or amends rules or requirements,

loan and counseling volume shoot up in the months preceding implementation, then dip in the months follow-ing, before ultimately leveling off again. “It’s hard to predict your revenue,” Lopes comments. “I can understand small groups not wanting to continue. We are likely to see some of the smaller groups drop off.” An even greater problem, he believes, does not apply across the board but can be a major trial for counselors. “Some lenders just push people into counseling without ascertaining whether they’re appropriate candidates for re-verse mortgages. They say, ‘Just tell them [the counselors] that you want to finance the fee.’ Then these people contact the counselor and say something like, ‘I don’t know why I’m calling but the lender told me to.’” “We have to make people understand that this is a great program, but not for everyone,” states Claudia Fehribach, Marketing Director of Debthelper Credit Card Manage-ment Services, Inc., a nonprofit housing and credit coun-seling organization. The best business model, from Lopes’ experience, is to have diverse business lines, even if some or all involve finan-cial counseling. That is the case with Debthelper. Fehribach agrees, “If an agency just relies on one service, it’s not very wise.” And while she concedes that with Financial Assess-ment, “We had to adjust,” and the length of counseling sessions rose, she says, “For us, it’s not bad at all. Reverse mortgage is one of the services we provide, but our coun-selors provide many services. And after any HUD change, new people come in to apply for HECM loans, and they don’t know how it was before, so a new cycle starts. And we believe that Financial Assessment was long overdue. It protects seniors and we’re happy to implement it.” Sue Brown, Vice President of Counseling at ClearPoint Credit Counseling Services, echoes Fehribach’s observations. “When a lender brings up Financial Assessment, some people will opt out before counseling, so that actually cuts down on the demand. With others who are new to the pro-cess, it sounds reasonable; more like a forward mortgage. It makes sense to them: ‘Of course. It’s a loan, and they come with responsibilities.’” All of the counselors contact-ed supported Financial Assessment. As for those who go through counseling and then deter-mine not to go forward, Brown says, “I maintain we’ve provid-ed a great service to those who don’t qualify or choose not to.” For either choice Fehribach notes, “We’re big on follow-up. A couple of months after counseling, we will re-contact the

Sustaining Counseling continued from page 21

Who’s Who in Counseling



client to ask, ‘How did everything go? Did you close? Are you happy?’” Results are reported back to HUD. Fehribach has also been offering counseling by Skype. “Many people can’t come in, but they like to see the face of the counselor.” She believes Skype and other similar services could take care of the concern in Massachusetts, which only allows in-person sessions. Many say this has been a signifi-cant problem, since it is difficult for some seniors to travel and there are few, if any, counselors available in the western region of the state. At ClearPoint, a multiservice company and HUD intermediary, Sue Brown has 20 counselors on the HECM roster. They provide telephone counseling throughout the United States and face-to-face in nine states, including Massachusetts and the two others that mandate it: North Carolina and California. In the other states, about 15 per-cent of clients request face-to-face sessions. Like those at

Debthelper, all counselors are cross-trained since “The amount of demand for HECM counseling changes radically. One of the challenges is how to efficiently utilize those counselors.” Though ClearPoint’s average session has grown longer, Brown says it isn’t by much. “We’d al-ready been doing a pretty substantial deep dive into finan-cial evaluation before the new requirements.” Still, she points out, if a lender hasn’t provided the potential borrower with the full information packet prior to counseling, then the counselor must provide it, which represents even more time and work. The current charge for HECM counseling ranges from $125 to $150. HUD allows a slightly higher fee if it is “reasonable and customary based on the level of service provided,” but most agencies are responsibly wary of mak-ing the fee too high. Brown, for example, worries about pricing any potential borrowers out of the market, given the other expenses they know they will incur. Fehribach


CERTIFICATE COMPLETED AND SENT TOTHE LOAN OFFICER, PENDING CLIENT

APPROVAL. FAST SERVICE ON CHANGESREQUESTED TO THE CERTIFICATES

1-800-920-2262

KIND & COMPASSIONATE HECM COUNSELINGSAME DAY, NEXT DAY, WEEKEND AND EMERGENCY COUNSELING.

HOURS OF OPERATION:MON-THUR 9:00 AM TO 9:00PM

FRIDAY 9:00 AM TO 7:00PMSATURDAY 10:00AM TO 5:00PM (EST)

MSO#83706HUD

APPROVED

AVAILABLEIN MOSTSTATES.

English, Spanish, Portuguese and Creole languages areavailable!




Home Ownership Center



IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP TO IMPLEMENTATION of Financial Assessment on April 27, 2015, a major question on people’s minds was the role of housing counselors in the process. Some loan officers were concerned that counselors could adversely impact a potential borrower’s eligibility to get a reverse mortgage, before they were properly vetted. In reality, the counselors themselves weren’t sure what role they would play. John Olmstead, Housing Program Specialist and a 28-year veteran of the U.S. Department of the Housing and Urban Development, clarified the issue when he addressed the industry at NRMLA’s Eastern and Western Regional Conferences this spring. He also sat down with Reverse Mortgage magazine to give us his thoughts on financial assessment and other counseling trends. Olmstead has worked in the Office of Housing Counseling since its formation in 2012 and is one of a handful of people at HUD to be listed on the HECM Counseling Roster. “I want to make absolutely clear that counselors will not be making financial assessment qualifying decisions,” said Olmstead. “Those decisions will remain with lenders and underwriters. We do, however, want counselors to discuss the overall requirements of financial assessment, the types of documents that lenders may require and why, and the impact of full and partially funded life expectancy set-asides.” The software used by counselors to estimate loan amounts and closing costs has a new financial assessment component that can help counselors identify potential issues that borrowers may want to discuss in greater detail with their lenders. Olmstead suggests loan officers should refrain from sending clients to HECM counselors if they know with a degree of certainty that the person will not pass the finan-cial assessment test. “Instead of wasting the HECM counselor’s time and having the borrower incur that expense, it might be more useful to refer the person to a debt or credit counselor who can resolve their financial problems,” said Olmstead. If the

person’s financial situation improves, then he or she canreconsider a reverse mortgage as a possible option and meet with a HECM counselor. The wall that has historically existed between counselors and lenders, which prevents one from influencing the other, is also being reconsidered. “The Office of Housing Counseling is revising the HECM counseling protocol by creating avenues where some communication can take place,” said Olmstead. HUD has no timetable yet when these policy changes will be published, but in the meantime, “we continue to empha-size the importance of counselors acting in the best interests of consumers and remaining independent of the lenders.” Another aspect of the counseling process that has been slowly evolving is the delivery method. While the vast ma-jority of people are still counseled over the phone, virtual technologies, such as Skype, are being used with greater frequency. “We have no prohibitions on the use of virtual tech-nologies, as long as both parties are amenable to its use and the technology provides secure voice and video contact with the client,” said Olmstead. “It’s as much the client’s choice as it is the counselor’s.” While speaking at the Western Regional Meeting, Olmstead displayed a slide which showed that in fiscalyear 2014, counselors issued 83,859 certificates, while actual HECM endorsements totaled 48,024 loans. He said it’s too early to know how financial assessment will impact these numbers going forward, but he hopes that people who should never have gone through counseling in the first place are identified sooner in the education process. “From HUD’s point of view, a successful counseling session is determined more by a client’s ability to make an informed decision based on their personal circumstances,” said Olmstead. “Many lenders have said they will screen their clients for potential financial assessment qualifica-

The Ongoing Evolutionof HECM CounselingA Talk with HUD’s John Olmstead By Darryl Hicks


Evolution of HECM Counseling continued on page 27



7:00am: On an average Tuesday in May, Dan Grafius arrives at ClearPoint Financial Solutions around 7:00am where he has worked for nearly 18 years offering credit, reverse mortgage, and loss mitigation counseling. On the agenda for the day are the usual three sessions. Grafius will spend the day counseling an elderly couple, the Marshalls, Mr. Stein and his daughter Sarah, and a widow, Mrs. Brown on reverse mortgages. To prepare for the day ahead Grafius scrutinizes his businesslike office to assure that everything is in place, checks to see that the counseling paperwork is organized, and adjusts one of the five landscape photos he took in Hawaii, adding a personal touch to the sunny third floor office overlooking a parking lot in Granada Hills, California.

7:00-7:30: Grafius spends his first 30 minutes of the morning answering emails. On average the emails are ques-tions from other HECM counselors about Financial Assess-ment or quality assurance. He also gets a number of requests from loan officers regarding corrections to certificates.

7:30-9:30: At 7:30am Grafius’ first session of the day is an elderly couple, a 78 year-old woman and her 80 year-old husband. Right off, Grafius can tell that Mrs. Marshall has deep reservations about obtaining a reverse mortgage, while Mr. Marshall is more optimistic. The couple’s major concern is whether or not they will have any equity left for their heirs. Grafius spends much of the two hours empha-sizing the rising debt, falling equity nature of these loans and the amortization schedule showing them how the loan balance increases dramatically with the compound inter-est at play. He explains that “if they are hoping to have equity leftover there is no guarantee and it’s dependent on a number of factors; how much the home appreciates in value, if they select an adjustable rate, what the inter-est rates do, how long they have the loan for, and most importantly how they use the loan.” Towards the end of the session Grafius’ instincts tell him Mrs. Marshall’s inclinations may have won out and that the couple won’t follow the reverse mortgage route. Either way, Grafius’ goal is merely to ensure that the Marshall’s understand all of their options regarding a reverse mortgage. So, per HUD

requirements, Grafius makes sure they understand their other options; such as refinancing their existing mortgage, a debt management plan to consolidate, and home-sharing. The remaining 30 minutes, usually set aside for post-coun-seling paperwork, is spent answering more questions and addressing concerns.

9:30-11:30: At 9:30am the second session of the day commences with an 80 year-old, Mr. Stein, who is accom-panied by his, financially savvy daughter, Sarah. Mr. Stein’s frail appearance makes him look childlike sitting in the black faux leather chairs with wooden armrests, while Sarah appears to be the parent, a semblance that Grafius is all too familiar with. Like so many other scenarios that

A Day in the Life of A CounselorBy Jessica Hoefer

888-860-4167www.greenpath.org

• Caring and knowledgeable staff• Same day appointments available• HECM Certificates delivered fast & accurately• Bi-lingual counselors available

Expert Reverse Mortgage Counseling


A Day in the Life continued on page 26

THE BUSINESS OF COUNSELING


ClearPoint is a top national intermediary providing reverse mortgage counseling to consumers across the country.

Our experienced team of counselors will help your clients make the right decision for them.

• Appointments are available Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm EST.

• Face-to-face counseling is available in most locations, including California, Massachusetts and North Carolina

• Approved Electronic Delivery of Reverse Mortgage Certificates

Call 866-616-3716


play out just like this Grafius starts off by explaining that while it is beneficial to have Sarah present for assistance, Mr. Stein will be responsible for answering the 10 com-prehension questions himself. Grafius keeps Mr. Stein as engaged as possible, but on several occasions Sarah tries to answer for her father, insistent that “financially a reverse mortgage is his best option.” Grafius reminds Sarah of HUD’s requirement that the client demonstrate a clear understanding of the reverse mortgage material. Knowing the daughter’s stance Grafius is diligent in making sure that Mr. Stein is fully aware of all of his options. In this partic-ular instance Grafius is successful. “Mr. Stein left the two hour session with a clear understanding of his options.”

11:30am-12:00pm: With each counseling session lasting close to two hours Grafius has a brief 30 minute window to answer an email from another counselor requesting any infor-mation on Financial Assessment that he can provide, make a

45-day follow-up call to a prior counseling client, and return a client call requesting clarification on a topic previously cov-ered in the counseling session.

12:00-1:00: From noon to 1:00pm Grafius squeezes in lunch at his desk. Today it is a sandwich with a side of chips.

1:00-2:00: The hour between 1:00pm and 2:00pm is spent creating and sending out pre-counseling paperwork. Once he receives an email stating that an appointment has been scheduled, Grafius compiles the paperwork and sends it to the client, allowing a chance for them to review the material before their counseling session.

2:00-4:00: Grafius’ final session of the day is at 2:00pm with a widow considering a reverse mortgage after the death of her husband. Mrs. Brown has a mortgage payment, her income has been reduced, she isn’t covered by her deceased husband’s pension, and she is worried about being able to stay in her home. Grafius’ patient disposition ensures he takes his time explaining reverse mortgages and helping Mrs. Brown determine whether or not it is a sustainable solution. Grafius posits some emergency scenarios and has Mrs. Brown consider how she would respond. Then Grafius has Mrs. Brown look at how a reverse mortgage would fit in with her current financial situation. Having his clients know every possibility is important to him. Grafius ex-plains to Mrs. Brown that his only concern is that “at the end of the two hours you are able to form your own opinion regarding a reverse mortgage.”

4:00: 4:00pm is the end of Grafius’ hectic day. In the span of eight hours he has counseled an elderly couple on opposing sides of a reverse mortgage, successfully apprised an 80 year-old man of his options despite his daughter’s constant intrusion into her father’s affairs, and facilitated a widows understanding of whether or not a reverse mort-gage is a sustainable solution for her. Whether or not any of these clients choose to go with a reverse mortgage is of no consequence to Grafius. He evades any conversation that requires him to express an opinion on whether or not the client should proceed with a reverse mortgage. Grafius simply “states the facts, provides options, and ensures that each client understands the same basic information cov-ered in the counseling session.”

A Day in the Life continued from page 25

RM

400,000consumers visit

reversemortgage.organnually.

Will they find you there?

Join NRMLAnrmlaonline.org



would like to see the standard charge rise to $175 but no higher. “That, or bigger grants would make everyone happy.” No one wants to see counseling curtailed, but the cur-rent financial realities are difficult to ignore. “We get some grants from corporations and we all rely pretty heavily on our HUD grants. But at the end of the day, it’s not enough,” says Brown. “A hundred and fifty dollars doesn’t quite cover the cost of counseling. We are fully committed to this process and providing these services to consumers, but at some point, we will probably have to limit our ca-pacity. As it is, it’s difficult to work out budgets and staff-ing each year.” A number of proposals have been made to sustain HECM counseling and even out the service-compensation equation. One proposal would have lenders put the equiv-alent of the fee into an escrow account for each potential borrower they send to counseling. The escrow would be administered by HUD, thereby maintaining the firewall, and would be distributed to the counseling agencies accord-ing to volume. A similar idea, outlined by Lopes, would reflect only those cases that actually went to closing. Based on the 50-plus percent completion rate, a sum of approximately twice the current fee – say, $250 – would be paid into a pool administered by a neutral third party, such as HUD, and remitted to the counseling service. The money could be charged to the loan originator or split with the borrower at settlement or through financing. “I think the pool idea is a model that might work,” states Brown. But,” for that to happen,” Lopes concedes, “HUD would have to rearrange a lot.” The best scenario, he says, would be to see the volume of loan originations rise. “If we could get back to 2009 levels, meaning about 200,000 sessions for a little over 100,000 loans, you would see a lot more people jumping back in. That would warrant and sustain training and tak-ing on new people.” One way or another, it seems clear that for this funda-mental part of the HECM process to work properly and smoothly, a stable and predictable funding mechanism is essential. “Without a doubt,” says Tony Lopes, “more money would mean more counselors.”

tion issues, which goes back to my earlier remark that we encourage lenders to promote debt and credit counseling to those particular clients versus HECM counseling.” Three months into financial assessment, Olmstead hasn’t received much feedback from counselors, but he noted that, “counselors have asked us to consider some clarifications around the depth of information that they are expected to go into with consumers. HUD is working on a housing notice that addresses some of these con-cerns. I think we’ll have a better idea soon what types of questions consumers are asking counselors and that might direct us in developing further refinements to the counsel-ing process.” NRMLA, said Olmstead, will be invited to participate in any discussions that take place to refine and improve HECM counseling.

Evolution of HECM Counseling continued from page 24

RM

RM


WHEN THE TIME CAME FOR FINANCIAL ASSESSMENT, it was clear that this was likely the most impactful change our industry had ever seen. Along with credit and income guidance, it ushered in the advent of a new word in reverse mortgage lingo, the dreaded LESA. The LESA, or life expectancy set aside, is something that many of us, including myself, feared upon introduc-tion. After all, a set aside that is going to take away from the proceeds of the loan, to pay property charges, including taxes and insurance for the life expectancy of the borrower, is likely to be a significant amount of money, resulting in few if any proceeds remaining. Why would a borrower say yes to having nearly all of their proceeds put aside instead of having the proceeds available to do what they wanted to do? For years we have sold this loan showing the line of credit and the growth rate associated with it, how are we to sell this? As I spoke to many of my colleagues in the industry, there was a growing consensus, the LESA was only for the borrower in a situation where they had little to no choice. The belief was that most people will say no to such a restrictive use of the proceeds unless they were borderline

foreclosure and wanted to save their home. We all started trying to figure out what the impact of the LESA would be, how much business would we lose as an industry? The LESA mindset was extremely negative. What now? As is the case with change, we often fear what we don’t know. Instead of looking at LESA as a last resort option for seniors and a negative outcome for our client base, we need to take a breath and try to understand the why behind the LESA. What positive outcomes can occur for a borrower when being put into a LESA? Are we really only serving those clients that are losing their homes otherwise or is there another group of borrowers that would benefit from the LESA? Once you start to examine the function of the set aside and actually see how it works, you can begin to see the value in it. Once you change your mindset and start to embrace the LESA, you can actually see where this can potentially help a borrower get on the right financial path for their future. The turning point for me was when we started toprepare our sales team for FA. Two months before FA went

Welcome LESASome Borrowers’ Best Friend By Paul Fiore

Welcome LESA continued on page 29


into effect, we started to measure the borrowers pass/fail rates on FA if it were to be in place. Essentially, we asked our sales team to start asking the additional FA questions necessary to determine whether a borrower would pass the residual income part of FA. We started to see a consistent pattern of roughly 90% to 92% of the clients passing the residual income piece. Granted this was all based upon verbal conversation and not actual income documents, but it gave us a decent picture to see what our starting point would be. The people who were failing the residual income test, were typically borrowers who were highly leveraged and had minimal equity in their homes. Many of these clients were the people who would likely not truly benefit from the long-term positive effect of a reverse mortgagebecause they would still be cash strapped. Even for these clients, a LESA would not likely help them since it would likely leave them short to close. So if the LESA was not going to work for the 8% to 10% that failed the residual income piece, who would it work for? About two weeks before FA went into effect, we added the willingness portion to our test with the client base. We wanted to start to see the full picture of our borrowers and how many people who failed residual income would have good credit but more importantly, how many people who passed residual income would fail the willingness portion of the FA and then require the LESA. Slowly, another pat-tern emerged: there was a group of borrowers who would pass the residual income because the mortgage payment was not counted against them, however, they were extremely tight financially and had some credit issues in the last couple of years because they did not really have the cash flow to pay their rising debt. They were slow to pay their taxes and had some mortgage payment delinquencies. These clients were not unwilling to pay their obligations, they just were finan-cially too strapped to do so. Perhaps a LESA would be theanswer to their issues. After all, a reverse mortgage eliminated their mortgage payment freeing up a significant amount of cash for them; by also covering their taxes and insurance for their life expectancy, they would truly not have anymajor housing obligations to have to worry about any longer. Now that we figured out who the LESA borrower

was, we needed to figure out how it would be explained to the potential client. Ultimately, when you sell any product, your attitude towards the product goes a long way into how well it is received from your potential client. If you don’t see the value in what you are selling, you likely won’t sell it successfully. Now that we saw the benefit of the LESA, our sales team would go in with the right mindset and sell it with convic-tion, which was the first step. The next step was explaining it to the client. We determined that the best explanation for the LESA was this: it is an opportunity to remove all of your housing obligations, free up monthly cash and help you start to clean up some of the credit issues that you had due to not having the cash flow necessary to pay your

bills. We are showing the clients that by having a LESA, they will have a way to start reducing their credit debt on a monthly basis and begin to repair their credit. They are not losing the proceeds of the HECM to a set aside, they are no longer paying obligations that they would have had to pay with those proceeds. The money is preserved in a set aside for them. Many of our clients have had an escrow account before, they just paid into it monthly, now they won’t have to since it’s already set aside for them. The interesting part of this sales angle is how well the client has taken to this approach. They welcome not having to pay their taxes and insurance any longer. They really get excited when they can see a path to getting out from credit card debt and begin to repair their credit. They see a way to financial security in their future. If there are proceeds left over after doing a LESA, that’s almost like hitting the lottery for these clients. If you sell a LESA with conviction, with an illustrated path to financial security and with the right conviction and mindset, you will be amazed with how positive the clients will respond. Don’t fear the LESA, welcome it. Put-ting the right client in a LESA is truly the pathway for a secure retirement for certain seniors and the more you embrace that notion, the more people you will help.

Welcome LESA continued from page 28

RM

Once you start to examine the function of the set aside and actually see how it works, you can begin to see the value in it.


CRMP:Across the

Kitchen Table

HAWAII LENDS ITSELF WELL, THERE IS NO PLACE on earth quite like the Hawaiian Islands. Here you’ll find palm- fringed blue lagoons, lush rain-forests, hidden gardens, cascading waterfalls, wild rivers running through a rugged canvas with active erupting volcanoes spewing in the background. Year-round forecast from our weathermen repeatedly predict a strong chance of t- shirt weather. And oh, those postcard worthy beaches - - golden, black, and even green sands caressed by endless surf. The possibilities for adventure and relaxation are endless. Each of the Hawaiian Islands has its own personality and its own sites that make Hawaii handsomely sophisticated. And for countless reasons, it has been a highly sought after piece of real estate. In the eyes of Zillow, the median single family home value in Honolulu is currently $626,300 with values appreciating 5.0% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise another 4.2% within the next year. Many publications con-sistently dub Hawaii as a top ten “better performing state” when comparing economic factors such as debt per capita, median household income, unemployment rate, etc. If you are a Kama’aina (resident) the 2013- 2014 American Human Development Report by the Social Science Research Council revealed that you have the longest life expectancy in the US with an average age of 81.3 years, which exceeds the national age of 79 by 2.3 years. I’d venture to say that the Aloha spirit which has been embodied into our culture has something to do with that result. The US Census Bureau tallies up 1.42 million total residents, comprised of a figure just north of 250,000 late middle aged (62+) residents and I have enough fingers to

The Aloha Spirit Originating in Hawaii By Larry Lau

count the number of reverse mortgage professionals serving on a local level as a life passion. When looking at national statistics towards the trends like ARM vs Fixed rate borrow-ers, needs based & affluent borrowers, etc. the percentages seem to line up with my book of business. Currently, we are one of nine states that the industry’s lonely jumbo propri-etary product entertains. Life in the Islands is GOOD. But wait: in a perfect world we wouldn’t look at the other side of the coin. That positively painted portrait, gives you a well-illus-trated snapshot of why I chose Hawaii to market. But let’s whiteboard out the challenges, starting with the financial woes that our clients face from a local perspective. Cost of living is expensive! Everything we consume is shipped in, almost everything including fuel. Fuel that averages $3.16 per gal-lon as I write this piece. Three dollars and sixteen cents for the local consumer compared to the national average of $2.67 means not only more money spent at the pump, it also means the most expensive energy cost in the Nation. That cost is a reality for everyone as we frown at our electric bill every month. I can’t imagine the crisis that would take place if our largest cargo, slow boat, shipping vendors, were to take part in a strike or something of that nature. Above the high energy cost is a matter much larger for our late middle aged subjects. According to MetLife’s Mature Market Institute Survey, Hawaii continues to be one of the most expensive places in the US to age in place. This includes but is not limited to homecare and health-care, two checkbook heavy reasons why our late middle age subjects inquire about a HECM. And for some strange reason, is “common for the area with no adverse effect on

The Aloha Spirit continued on page 31


marketability” water catchments taste funny to most un-derwriters. On a side note, public perception is a national event. We too, take part in changing the conversation and scaling towards critical mass. My best look is definitely not at 3:00 a.m. in the morn-ing. That’s the time I need to be up and at it if I am work-ing with an east coast fulfillment center as we currently have a six hour time difference to respect. As dawn starts to set in, it’s not always gorgeous weather as Hawaii is prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. Doesn’t that mean Hurricane Insurance! The same stuff the Gulf Coast has become accustomed to. But we should be thankful insur-ance companies write wind policies because there are places in Hawaii that insurance companies just won’t touch, not even with someone else’s money. I’m talking about Lava Zones. The Big Island, mind you the biggest and the best Island, is comprised of 9 lava zones. With lava zone 9 des-ignated as the safest area and lava zone 1 detailed as the highest hazard. If you are a resident here in lava zone 1, you have one choice of insurance provider, Lloyds of London,

and it isn’t the most affordable insurance premium I’ve seen. And if you are a resident in lava zones 1 and 2, HUD deems your property ineligible. At the end of the day, the State of Hawaii has its pros and cons just like any other State. The most unique feature Hawaii presents is its Aloha spirit. The Aloha spirit is a well-known reference to the attitude of friendly acceptance for which the HawaiianIslands are so famous. In its modern context, Aloha is commonly used to gesture greetings, farewell and express-ing love. At its deepest core, it refers to a powerful way to accomplish any goal, a way of life, and used to achieve any state of mind that you desire. The stuff that keeps your feel good endorphins swimming. Without a doubt, one of the biggest reasons I choose to keep Hawaii the environment to live, work and play. If you are reading this article and happen to be one of the two million annual visitors, here is an open invitation to reach out to me. With Aloha and a glass half full of a well poured Mai Tai in my strong hand, Cheers!

The Aloha Spirit continued from page 30

CRMP:Across the

Kitchen Table

RM

The superheroes at LRES provide a full range of valuation and REO Asset Management services for the Reverse Mortgage Industry. They spring into action where others drag their feet. And behind their cool demeanor burns the fire of a real estate services superhero – highly knowledgeable, accurate, and empowered to act on your behalf with extraordinary speed.

For an unassailable real estate services partner you can count on nationwide, contact one of the superheroes from the LRES Team: 800.531.5737 or email [email protected]

800.531.LRES (5737) ext. 157 ∆ www.LRES.com


MemberProfiles

Who’s Who in Reverse MortgagesMember News

Liberty Names New President Liberty Home Equity Solutions, Inc., a Top 5 reverse mortgage lender, named Mike Kent as its new President in April. Kent previously was President of the Mortgage Lending Divi-sion at Reverse Mortgage Solutions. In addition, he has 36 years of “forward” mortgage experience, having held leadership roles across various lending functions, including sales, operations and sec-ondary markets. “Mike is the perfect fit as President for Liberty,” said Otto Kum-bar, CEO of Liberty, in a written statement. “He wants to grow the industry and is passionate about helping more seniors. Mike’s exten-sive forward mortgage experience will help accelerate Liberty’s growth and his entrepreneurial spirit and outstanding relationships in the industry will create new opportunities for Liberty.”

RMS’ Chief Executive Retires D. Scott Clarke, who took over as President and CEO of Reverse Mortgage Solutions in December 2013, announced his retirement on June 15. Clarke had also served on NRMLA’s Board of Directors.

Fidelity Homestead Associates Receives BBB Accreditation The Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland (BBB) has awarded its prestigious accreditation status to Fidelity Homestead Associates, a contractor management group that specializes in home repair and restoration for the mortgage industry. “We are proud to be a BBB Accredited Business,” said David A.

Michael, Jr., President of Fidelity Homestead Associates. “It signifies our commitment to customer service, reliability and trust. Our ac-knowledgment by the BBB aligns with and supports our efforts of providing superior service in the marketplace.” Fidelity Homestead Associates offers a wide variety of inspection, repair and renovation services. A BBB member since 2012, this is the first year Fidelity Homestead Associates has received accreditation status.

Fairway Voted #1 Best Company to Work For Two Years in a Row For the second consecutive year, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation was voted #1 Best Company to Work For in 2015 based on loan originator votes in Mortgage Executive Magazine. More than 10,000 individual loan originators from over 200 mortgage companies and banks voted. Every year, Mortgage Executive Magazine conducts a survey to select the 50 Best Companies to Work For in America. These exten-sive online surveys are limited to licensed mortgage loan originators (MLOs) who must be currently employed by the companies that they are rating. Any company with a minimum of 30 MLOs is eligible to participate. In the survey, MLOs rate their company’s culture, loan processing, underwriting, compensation, management, marketing and technolo-gy. The top 50 companies are chosen based on their average rating score and total number of MLO votes. Fairway received a 4.94 out of 5.0 rating with more than 800 loan originators surveyed.

American Advisors Group (AAG) American Advisors Group (AAG) is the nation’s leader in re-verse mortgage lending, licensed to operate in 48 states. The company, founded in 2004 by CEO Reza Jahangiri, is headquartered in Orange, CA. We are dedicated to helping American seniors leverage their home equity as an asset to help fund retirement. AAG holds an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau, has a 96% customer satisfaction rating and is a member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA). Jahangiri serves as the asso-ciation’s Vice Chairman and co-chairs NRMLA’s policy committee.

To learn more about American Advisors Group, please visit aag.com.

Celink Celink’s Reverse Mortgage Servicing Mission is threefold.

We Lead — Ethics, integrity, and unwavering core values direct all of our actions.

We Support — We support our clients through new and often uncharted territory.

We Innovate — We explore and uncover new and cost-effective waysto increase our value to our clients and their borrowers. We meet every industry challenge and every client and borrower need with the confidence that comes from knowing who we are and what we’re about. Your reputation and your borrower’s are safe with Celink. Visit celink.com for a full Corporate Overview.

Ryan LaRose, President &COO: [email protected] • (517) 321-5491

Profiles of NRMLA Member Companies


MemberProfilesLiberty Home Equity Solutions

For nearly a decade, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, Inc. has been committed to helping seniors gain financial independence and security through Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). Based in Sacramento, California, Liberty is one of the nation’s largest and most experienced lenders, focusing exclusively on providing HECM loans to senior clients and wholesale business partners. We have helped change the lives of over 40,000 clients since 2004 while providing education and lending solutions to over 1,000 business partners across the U.S.

www.libertyhomeequity.comFor career opportunities call (916) 589-1853For wholesale opportunities call (866) 871-1353 © 2015 Liberty Home Equity Solutions, Inc. NMLS # 3313 www.nmlsconsumeracces.org. For a complete list of licenses, visit www.libertyhomeequity.com/licensesnmls

LRES LRES is a national provider of proper-ty valuation and REO asset management services for the real estate, capital market and finance industries. At LRES, we specialize in helping our clients effectively manage compliance and financial risks associated with val-uation matters. We are the preeminent valuations provider for the Reverse Mortgage industry and deliver peerless service as we strive to be your business partner of choice. LRES has experienced significant growth, regardless of market conditions, thanks to an experienced staff, advanced technology, solid business planning, efficient operations, and the support of every client we serve.

Brittany Hurd, 714-872-5872, [email protected] • www.lres.com

National Field RepresentativesReverse Mortgage Field ServicesDealing with Reverse Mortgages is complex. NFR is your source for information, exper-tise, and guidance when it comes to Mortgage Field Services. For over 15 years, Reverse Mortgage Servicing executives have relied on NFR to deliver Field Services with integrity and profes-sionalism. We have earned the reputation as a trusted partner meeting the real-world challenges facing Reverse Mortgage Servicers. Our team members know family members may not fully understand a Reverse Mortgage and our coordinators are trained to deal with each situa-tion gently and with compassion. NFR understands the importance of protecting your professional reputation.

Contact: Margie Schagen, [email protected]: 866-966-0789 ext. 5220 • www.NFROnline.com

Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. (RMS) RMS is a full service partner offering loan origination services, servicing, securitization and REO asset management solutions. Since forming in 2007, RMS has built its business through strong partnerships with Wholesale, Correspon-dent and Aggregation lenders nationwide. We understand our success is because of our valuable Partners. We’d welcome any opportunity to support your reverse mortgage lending needs. RMS is a Walter Investment Management company, #1 in HMBS issuance and rated “Strong” by Standard and Poor’s. We’re a proud member of NRMLA and an advocate of the reverse mortgage industry. NMLS ID 107636.

Contact: RMS Wholesale Team • Phone: 866-571-8213E-mail: [email protected] • www.rmsnav.com

Reverse Vision ReverseVision, Inc. pro-vides the leading software and technology for the reverse lend-ing industry by offering products and services focused exclusively on reverse mortgages. More reverse mortgages are originated monthly using ReverseVision’s SaaS solution, RV Exchange (RVX), than all other systems combined. ReverseVision has partnered with some of the finest and fastest growing lending organizations in the US to provide solutions to brokers, principal agents, correspondents, lenders and investors. ReverseVision is recognized as a driving innovator in the reverse mortgage industry and continues to improve their suite of products with frequent and new innovations, improved integrated services, online credited training and more. ReverseVision is headquartered in San Diego, CA, and boasts a team of reverse mortgage experts, engineers, business specialists and entrepreneurs with a combined experience of over 60 years.

www.reversevision.com • 919-834-0070 • connect@reversevisioncom

Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF) Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF) is an independent, reverse-only company. We don’t have competing corporate priorities or distract-ing lines of business. Everything we do is focused on making reverse mortgages better, in a proactive and nimble way that benefits everyone. Known for product innovation, exceptional service and unparalleled secondary market expertise, RMF delivers a wide array of products and superior pricing. Whether you are new to reverse or a seasoned originator, RMF has a variety of platforms that help our part-ners succeed. Partner with us today, and together we’ll create opportu-nities for a brighter future.

For wholesale opportunities: Call (877) 820.5314 or visit partners.reversefunding.comFor career opportunities: Email [email protected]

Urban Financial of America (UFA) Urban Financial of America, LLC (UFA) is a retail and wholesale lender specializing in reverse mortgages, and ranks among the top originators in the United States. UFA is licensed in most states and Puerto Rico. Our company acts as a direct originator and pur-chaser of whole loans through our third-party originator channel, and is one of the largest issuers of GNMA securities. Our core values guide our business practices; client focus,integrity, teamwork, respect for each individual, innovation and respon-sible citizenship. Every day, we are setting the industry standard for clientexperience, company culture, and financial performance through responsible lending.

Retail: www.ufareverse.com • Wholesale: www.ufawholesale.comCareer Opportunities: (888) 622-2073 or [email protected]

Wholesale Division: Jonathan Scarpati, [email protected] or 516-445-9465

Sherry Apanay, Chief Sales [email protected] or (855)-77-URBAN


Bulletins

News from NRMLA and Beyond

HUD Issues Modified MOE Assignment Claim HUD issued a new Mortgagee Letter (2015-15) under the subject Mortgagee Optional Election Assignment for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) with an FHA Case Number assigned prior to August 4, 2014 that modifies the MOE Assignment claim requirements previously issued and expands its availability to a wider base. This Mortgagee Letter is effective immediately. Mortgagees must notify HUD of their election to evaluate a HECM with an FHA Case Number assigned prior to August 4, 2014, and initiate assignments subject to the timeframes specified in this Mortgagee Letter. This ML comes following a HUD review for further consideration of ML 2015-03.

FHA Extends Due and Payable Timeline The Federal Housing Administration has granted a one-time extension for mortgagees to submit delinquent loans for due and payable status, giving them added time to implement new guidance contained in Mortgagee Letter 2015-11. FHA Info #15-42 states, “For HECM loans that default for tax and insurance on or after April 23, 2015, FHA is permitting mortgagees to take a one-time extension, through no later than October 20, 2015, to submit this due and payable request.” Mortgagee Letter 2015-11, which communicated new permissible loss mitigation options, took effect immediately when it was published on April 23. FHA’s actions give mortgagees more time to update systems and train staff.

NRMLA Welcomes Jenny Werwa, New Public Relations Director When NRMLA decided to create an in-house public relations department, CEO and President Peter Bell’s dream was to find someone with association experience, financial services experience and Capitol Hill experience. “I never expected we would find the whole package,” Bell says. Then Jenny Werwa walked into our conference room equipped with a resume that included PR experience at the National Association of Realtors, the American Immigrant Lawyers Association and in the office of California Congresswoman Jackie Speier. Jenny will be leading the effort to execute the 2015 Public Relations plan approved by the Board of Directors, entitled “Help More People,” that includes commissioning new and needed research, aggressive press outreach and creation of a National Reverse Mortgage Education Week. She also has communications and outreach experience with the American College of OB-GYNs, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, a non-profit in Washington, DC. She has a BA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a MA in public policy from George Washington University. Jenny also serves on the board of directors of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

NRMLA Pursues Addressing Issues Raised By CFPB In the wake of the CFPB press conference accusing reverse mortgage company advertising of being “misleading,” NRMLA has reached out to the Bureau requesting to view the 97 ads shown to focus groups to help clarify and address the issues. NRMLA has also requested the ads under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows members of the public to access information from the federal government. NRMLA has a long history of working with government agencies and the reverse mortgage industry to address issues and improve the HECM program. This includes working with HUD to encourage passage of the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 to provide the agency with the authority to make changes to the HECM program that would secure borrowers and strengthen the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Compliant and appropriate advertising has been a stipulation within NRMLA membership and the association has implemented an ongoing series of initiatives to try to assure adherence. These include:

• the requirement of signing a Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility to become a member and as a requirement for annual renewals;

• an Ethics Committee that reviews advertising of both member and non-member companies and pursues actions for non-compliance;

• issuance of advisories to members that reemphasize the requisites of compliance;

• a list of unethical advertising practices that is both distributed to membership and posted on our websites.

Senior Home Equity Nears $4 Trillion as Home Values Rise The NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a quarterly measure which analyzes trends in home values, home equity, and mortgage debt of homeowners 62 and older, has reached 189.67, its highest level since Q1 2007. The RMMI is updated quarterly and tracks back to the start of 2000. The $63.5 billion increase in senior home equity in the first quarter was fueled by an estimated $61.6 billion increase in the aggregate value of senior housing and a $1.9 billion decline in senior-held mortgage debt. The first quarter of 2015 was the twelfth consecutive quarter in which the index has risen, and the $3.96 trillion estimated aggregate value of home equity owned by seniors is now just 1 percent below its peak level of $4.0 trillionin Q4 2006. Current senior equity levels represent a 34 percent recovery from the post-Recession trough reached in Q2 2011, when levels fell to an estimated $3.0 trillion. The RMMI increased 1.6% from the fourth quarter of 2014 when the index stood at 186.63. The senior housing value estimate is based on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Q1 2015 all-transactions Indices.


HUD Issues Modified MOE Assignment Claim HUD issued a new Mortgagee Letter (2015-15) under the subject Mortgagee Optional Election Assignment for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) with an FHA Case Number assigned prior to August 4, 2014 that modifies the MOE Assignment claim requirements previously issued and expands its availability to a wider base. This Mortgagee Letter is effective immediately. Mortgagees must notify HUD of their election to evaluate a HECM with an FHA Case Number assigned prior to August 4, 2014, and initiate assignments subject to the timeframes specified in this Mortgagee Letter. This ML comes following a HUD review for further consideration of ML 2015-03.

FHA Extends Due and Payable Timeline The Federal Housing Administration has granted a one-time extension for mortgagees to submit delinquent loans for due and payable status, giving them added time to implement new guidance contained in Mortgagee Letter 2015-11. FHA Info #15-42 states, “For HECM loans that default for tax and insurance on or after April 23, 2015, FHA is permitting mortgagees to take a one-time extension, through no later than October 20, 2015, to submit this due and payable request.” Mortgagee Letter 2015-11, which communicated new permissible loss mitigation options, took effect immediately when it was published on April 23. FHA’s actions give mortgagees more time to update systems and train staff.

NRMLA Welcomes Jenny Werwa, New Public Relations Director When NRMLA decided to create an in-house public relations department, CEO and President Peter Bell’s dream was to find someone with association experience, financial services experience and Capitol Hill experience. “I never expected we would find the whole package,” Bell says. Then Jenny Werwa walked into our conference room equipped with a resume that included PR experience at the National Association of Realtors, the American Immigrant Lawyers Association and in the office of California Congresswoman Jackie Speier. Jenny will be leading the effort to execute the 2015 Public Relations plan approved by the Board of Directors, entitled “Help More People,” that includes commissioning new and needed research, aggressive press outreach and creation of a National Reverse Mortgage Education Week. She also has communications and outreach experience with the American College of OB-GYNs, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, a non-profit in Washington, DC. She has a BA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a MA in public policy from George Washington University. Jenny also serves on the board of directors of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

NRMLA Pursues Addressing Issues Raised By CFPB In the wake of the CFPB press conference accusing reverse mortgage company advertising of being “misleading,” NRMLA has reached out to the Bureau requesting to view the 97 ads shown to focus groups to help clarify and address the issues. NRMLA has also requested the ads under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows members of the public to access information from the federal government. NRMLA has a long history of working with government agencies and the reverse mortgage industry to address issues and improve the HECM program. This includes working with HUD to encourage passage of the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 to provide the agency with the authority to make changes to the HECM program that would secure borrowers and strengthen the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Compliant and appropriate advertising has been a stipulation within NRMLA membership and the association has implemented an ongoing series of initiatives to try to assure adherence. These include:

• the requirement of signing a Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility to become a member and as a requirement for annual renewals;

• an Ethics Committee that reviews advertising of both member and non-member companies and pursues actions for non-compliance;

• issuance of advisories to members that reemphasize the requisites of compliance;

• a list of unethical advertising practices that is both distributed to membership and posted on our websites.

Senior Home Equity Nears $4 Trillion as Home Values Rise The NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a quarterly measure which analyzes trends in home values, home equity, and mortgage debt of homeowners 62 and older, has reached 189.67, its highest level since Q1 2007. The RMMI is updated quarterly and tracks back to the start of 2000. The $63.5 billion increase in senior home equity in the first quarter was fueled by an estimated $61.6 billion increase in the aggregate value of senior housing and a $1.9 billion decline in senior-held mortgage debt. The first quarter of 2015 was the twelfth consecutive quarter in which the index has risen, and the $3.96 trillion estimated aggregate value of home equity owned by seniors is now just 1 percent below its peak level of $4.0 trillionin Q4 2006. Current senior equity levels represent a 34 percent recovery from the post-Recession trough reached in Q2 2011, when levels fell to an estimated $3.0 trillion. The RMMI increased 1.6% from the fourth quarter of 2014 when the index stood at 186.63. The senior housing value estimate is based on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Q1 2015 all-transactions Indices.


Numbers

Top Ten Lenders 2010-2015Lender Total Number of LoansWELLS FARGO BANK NA 17,419BANK OF AMERICA NA CHARLOTTE 12,956METLIFE BANK 10,830URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 7,685GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY 5,921LIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 3,872FINANCIAL FREEDOM ACQUISITION 3,314ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 3,242RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 1,293REVERSE MORTGAGE USA INC 1,172

2010

Lender Total Number of LoansMETLIFE BANK 7,760URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 7,066LIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 6,980GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY 5,536ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 4,803RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 4,575AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP 3,825SUN WEST MORTGAGE CO INC 1,772THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK LAYTON 1,470CHERRY CREEK MORTGAGE CO INC 1,194

2012

Lender Total Number of LoansWELLS FARGO BANK NA 15,673METLIFE BANK 13,593URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 7,884GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY 6,251BANK OF AMERICA NA CHARLOTTE 5,037LIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 4,731ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 4,619RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 2,015AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP 1,815REVERSE MORTGAGE USA INC 966

2011

Lender Total Number of LoansLIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 9,810RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 8,639URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 8,138AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP 7,895ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 5,405GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY 4,668PROFICIO MORTGAGE VENTURES LLC 2,550SUN WEST MORTGAGE CO INC 1,683REVERSE MORTGAGE USA INC 1,604CHERRY CREEK MORTGAGE CO INC 1,412

2013

Lender Total Number of LoansAMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP 13,287LIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 6,950RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 6,169URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 6,078ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 4,974GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY 2,511PROFICIO MORTGAGE VENTURES LLC 1,744REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC 1,708LIVE WELL FINANCIAL INC 1,396CHERRY CREEK MORTGAGE CO INC 1,088

2014 Lender Total Number of Loans

AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP 3,830URBAN FINANCIAL OF AMERICA LLC 2,513RMS/SECURITY ONE LENDING 2,149LIBERTY HOME EQUITY SOLUTIONS INC 1,959ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE LLC 1,886REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC 1,108LIVE WELL FINANCIAL INC 836PROFICIO MORTGAGE VENTURES LLC 456HOME POINT FINANCIAL CORPORATION 410CHERRY CREEK MORTGAGE CO INC 393

thro

ugh

Apr

il 20

15

Source: Reverse Market Insight, Inc.

S a v e t h e D a t e

NRMLA Annual Meeting & Expo

November 16-18, 2015The Palace HotelSan Francisco, CA

Register now at nrmlaonline.org

ReverseVision is the only tool you need to be successful. Fully-integrated solution spanning loan life cycle

Financial Assessment compliant within RV Exchange

Optimized for retail, wholesale and correspondent channels

No license fee for third-party originators

Integrated workflow connects back office with originators

Compliant docs configured for your business needs

Ship and purchase closed loans collaboratively with investors

Reverse Loans. One Platform. All Connected.

Now is the time for HECMs.Over 25 million potential borrowers are waiting

Financial Assessment (FA) strengthens loan quality

HECMs can be used to purchase a new home

HECMs are FHA-insured loan programs

Financial Planners recognize HECMs as a viable retirement option

WWW.REVERSEVISION.COM | [email protected] | 858-433-4970

Reverse Mortgage -...

Documents

Transcript of Reverse Mortgage -...