Moving Forward Working Together Is Key to Success in Our Industry We Must Renew Our Commitment to Our Customers, Our Community By Steve Irwin, President, National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association “If you can’t handle stress, you won’t manage success.” —Olivier Francois, Global President of Fiat Brand & Chief Marketing Officer of FCA Group THERE IS NO question the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruption to our marketplace. Quarantine directives and lockdown guidance necessarily demanded that NRMLA members shift their operational practices, counseling delivery, appraisal procedures and closing methods to accommodate the new realities. Our industry rose to the challenge and continued to assist seniors in effectively leveraging their home equity so they might continue to age in place. And now, we have faced a new set of disruptions that have seen some market participants exit the reverse mortgage space and others consolidate into different and unique entities. While I do believe the macroeconomic conditions will continue through their own cycle, we must remind ourselves that now is the time to renew our commitment to customers and our community. The commitment to customers will require us to close performance gaps, where performance, as perceived by the customer, does not equal the performance expected by the customer. It is incumbent on us all to properly set customer expectations and ensure service delivery exceeds those expectations. This focus will mitigate reputational risk and help ensure the longevity of our unique product offerings. These expectations must be set across the entire life cycle experience of borrowers— and their trusted advisers—from counseling to application, processing to closing, onboarding to servicing and delicate end-of-loan issues. The commitment to our community will require us to keep all channels of communication open, broaden and strengthen our commitment to educational opportunities, and continue our advocacy on behalf of our members and the senior homeowners you all serve. We will work to strengthen and broaden our committee participation and activities; host webinars on topics our members consider critical to their business; and stay in front of the agencies, regulators and legislators who oversee the space we operate in. Yes, these past several months have been challenging and trying, but we will come out of this stronger by working together and strengthening our community and by renewing our collective commitment to the customer. Your association is ready to meet these challenges and to work with you to effectively strengthen our solidarity and manage our collective success. Steve Irwin REVERSE MORTGAGE / MARCH–APRIL 2023 5
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