Moving Forward Embrace Change— Even When It’s Unanticipated Onward Into 2023 Is the Only Path Forward By Steve Irwin, President, NRMLA “Change before you have to”—Jack Welch AS WE ALL look ahead to another great year, we continually work to manage our businesses, our operations and our lives so we might find stability. We anticipate, and prepare for, any and all of the strong headwinds we might face. We diligently strive to manage the future through robust analytics and our collective relevant past experiences. We naturally desire consistent and predictable outcomes. These exercises often prove to be futile, however. Of course, we need plans of action and contingencies. This is the responsible and prudent way to operate. We must collectively recognize change is coming. We can’t control it, and we can’t always predict it. Chaos happens, and we need to anticipate it. We need to look forward to the change that unexpectedly gets thrown our way and embrace it when it happens. We must prepare to be as nimble as possible and mitigate those unknown risks. We must understand how unanticipated change impacts our teams, our families and the customers we serve. Then, we get into gear, adapt, execute and come out stronger. So, we know the coming year will see changes to our regulatory environment, to the dynamics of the secondary markets and to the evolving technology we all employ. We don’t know what these specific changes will be as I write this column, but I do know change is coming to our critically important marketplace. There are also changes coming our way that none of us can anticipate. There will be changes NRMLA and its membership will lead. There will be changes we all cause and will do our best to prepare for. And as for that which is unknown and will necessarily require us to quickly react, I look forward to the opportunity to be creative and innovative. I eagerly anticipate advocating for our members in light of these unanticipated changes. I embrace the opportunity to further our cause as a membership organization that advances the cause of responsible retirement financing and supports the mission of enabling older homeowners to safely age in place. I also look forward to celebrating with you all as we come out the other side of those unanticipated headwinds. We all deserve to take a breath, reflect on the outcomes and ask ourselves: What’s next? Onward. Steve Irwin REVERSE MORTGAGE / NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2022 5
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