Guild rebrands its reverse mortgage programs

Guild Mortgage has rebranded its reverse mortgage programs as Flexible Payment Mortgages to show the product has uses beyond a senior tapping home equity as additional income, a company executive said.

The San Diego-based company entered the reverse mortgage business when it acquired Cherry Creek Mortgage in March 2023. Jim Cory, managing director of reverse mortgages, joined Guild as a result of the deal.

Guild offers both the Federal Housing Administration-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage as well as a proprietary jumbo product. With the rebranding, one of the flexibilities about reverse mortgages it wants to highlight is the HECM for Purchase program, Cory said in an interview.

"It's a really big part of what we're doing with Guild, having thousands of originators out there who are largely doing [forward] purchase mortgages," he continued.

He compared it to when a Guild loan officer speaks with someone who is a U.S. military veteran. In that case, they would offer that person a Veterans Affairs-guaranteed mortgage as a choice.

"We feel that anytime our Guild originators are talking to somebody that is 62-plus, or in the case of the jumbo, 55-plus in some states, that they should be offering them a Flex Payment Mortgage option," Cory said.

As for the flexible payment portion of the branding, Cory noted that while traditionally a reverse mortgage does not have to be paid back until it becomes due, a consumer can make a payment at any time for any iteration of the product. If the borrower is using the line of credit option, those funds become available again to be borrowed.

If times were to get tough, the borrower can stop making payments and they would not be considered delinquent.

For the current federal fiscal year, from October 2023 through August, Guild Mortgage ranked eighth among HECM lenders with 430 endorsements, versus 265 in 2023, according to Reverse Market Insight.

Mutual of Omaha is now the nation's leading HECM producer with 4,024 in the current federal fiscal year, followed by Finance of America Reverse (the former No. 1) at 4,002.

The rebranding is a way for Guild to stand out among reverse mortgage lenders. While in the past several large players relied on celebrity spokespeople, currently only Tom Selleck for FOA Reverse (he started with predecessor company American Advisor Group) looks to be pitching on television.

Cherry Creek had this fully functional reverse mortgage unit, and [after the deal was completed] we started talking about ways to outreach to Guild customers, to Guild loan originators," Cory said. "Really, that's my own — it's not a company goal, it's my own personal goal — to see every Guild originator fund a Flex Payment Mortgage in the next couple of years."

Cory has been in this business for 27 years and is looking to get more participation from the mortgage industry in these programs, alluding to the saying about a rising tide that lifts all boats.

A key to this expansion is giving Guild LOs the training, support and tools so they can offer reverse mortgages to their clients, Cory said.

Given that the consumer is from a protected class, it is important that these loans be done properly, he said.