THIS PAST JANUARY, Sarah Cavanaugh celebrated 30 years in the reverse mortgage business. When NRMLA held its first conference in 1997 at the Ritz-Carlton in La Quinta, CA, Cavanaugh was one of 50 people who attended. This writer was there too, assigned to cover the festivities for National Mortgage News. While most people specialize in one area of the reverse mortgage business, Cavanaugh has had hands-on experience in every facet of the business, including state and regulatory compliance; risk mitigation; retail, wholesale and correspondent origination environments; operations; and sales management. She also owned her own mortgage brokerage business for two years before returning to a corporate environment. She was first elected to NRMLA’s Board of Directors in 2000 and served as co-chair from 2003 to 2006 and in 2012. She currently co-chairs NRMLA’s Ethics Committee and is an active member of the HUD Issues and Compliance Committees. Reverse Mortgage sat down with Cavanaugh to reflect on her long and distinguished career. Reverse Mortgage: How did you get into the reverse mortgage business? Sarah Cavanaugh: It was a function of being in the right place at the right time. When I was at the end of my college career, I went into marketing research and specialized in working with financial products and financial institutions. One of my clients asked my company to host a series of focus groups on reverse mortgages. This was 1991. We hadn’t heard about them, so, of course, we researched them before doing a series of focus groups in Santa Rosa, CA. It was really fascinating, because even then I got a feel for the impact that a reverse mortgage could have on people’s lives, and that really piqued my interest. Ironically, a few months later, a friend of mine told me her company had just gone public and they were actively hiring. That company was Providential Corp., which was a reverse mortgage lender. I interviewed, got the position and started in 1992 as a marketing representative. It’s amazing to think that it’s been 30 years now since that day, and here I am still in this industry. RM: Congratulations on your recent promotion to senior vice president, retail operations. What are your primary responsibilities? What improvements would you like to see implemented while you’re in this role? SC: Well, first of all, thank you—I was really honored to be considered for this position and excited to continue working at FAR (Finance of America Reverse). In my Sarah Cavanaugh, Senior Vice President, Operations-Retail, Finance of America Reverse By Darryl Hicks From the Top Sarah Cavanaugh 12 REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2022
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