Multi-channel lender new america funding (NAF) is developing reverse mortgages in a big way.
The company also aims to streamline its existing presence in the reverse mortgage market, as evidenced by its ambitious new marketing campaign “Old Wives.” It also seeks to expand the number of loan officers and strategy development tools available to continue building on the momentum company executives say they see in the area.
To better understand these initiatives and priorities, RMD sat down with Shannon Robinson, vice president of reverse mortgage lending at NAF, to assess how the industry is evolving as it responds to broader mortgage headwinds, as well as those specific to reverse mortgage lending. Way business side.
Chris Clow/RMD: We’re almost halfway through 2024.
Shannon Robinson: It’s going great. We just recently added a new Strategic Business Manager to our department. Her name is Lorraine Geraci, and she joins us to continue to develop our relationships within the company. We do a lot of outreach and education within New American Funds to educate our traditional loan officers on how to take advantage of reverse mortgages.
The initiative flourished last year and became a real success. Now they ask, “How do I incorporate this into my conversations, into my presentations, when I’m meeting with my B2B clients?”
Clow: How does your team keep these traditional loan officers up to speed?
Robinson: What we’re doing is educating those traditional loan officers, and then we’re going to bring in reverse experts to continue to scale. We continue to grow in our legacy of New American Funds and bring in new contrarian players and strategic business managers like Lorraine, allowing us to gain access to this education more quickly.
They’re busy right now and aren’t necessarily reverse engineering experts, so we’re trying to give them enough information to have a good conversation and then work with our reverse engineering team to help that client.
Clow: Are you satisfied with the progress so far? How do you say it’s tracking now?
Robinson: It really took off. It’s really exciting to have Lorraine join us. We have quite a few new players. Our goal is to double our headcount by the end of 2023, and we feel very good about it. By the end of Season 2, we were halfway there and on track to achieve our goals for the year.
This remains a challenging time; interest rates are not good for anyone. But the great thing about NAF is that we are growing. We will continue to grow during this difficult time.
Crowe: We’ve talked about one of the new things (marketing campaigns). What else have you tried?
Robinson: People are trying new things, like the “Old Lady” event you mentioned. We did step into the partnership with NAF to put the reverse team in front of the traditional loan officer. Those traditional loan officers are so lucky. We were able to hand over traditional transactions to them and they were working with us to do the opposite.
We’ve been in growth mode since we started the reverse division, and I don’t see that growth slowing down. We are achieving our goals.
Clow: What do you think helps guide your approach to recruiting new employees?
Robinson: First of all, culture is everything at New America Fund. We like to say it’s invite-only. When we recruit for our reverse department, we’re not only looking for people we’ve worked with in the past, but we’re also looking for people who have excelled. We want to see what that person is like. We do our due diligence when we talk to them.
We’ve had a lot of people contact us saying they’ve seen us on social media or heard about us from their colleagues. They asked us if they could talk, so people started contacting us and we were having conversations. It really depends on whether they fit our culture. This isn’t for everyone, but we want to welcome those who fit our culture and would make a good match.
Clow: Obviously there are a lot of challenges in the broader mortgage industry, and reverse lending has its own challenges. How do these impact recruitment efforts?
Robinson: We know this is a difficult time. We see other businesses having to make tough decisions. If there is an opportunity for us to take on other players in a reverse team, perhaps on the processing, licensing, operations or business side, we will explore it. However, we also understand the market very well and are careful not to grow too fast and over-support.
We maintain a flat leadership organization and hire loan officers who truly want to be here and continue to provide the products we offer. But I will say this is by invitation only. We want to maintain the culture that NAF has built over the past 20 years.
