Jeffrey Taylor, a former Wells Fargo reverse mortgage executive and founder of Wendover Funding, has died following a battle with cancer, according to a funeral home notice online. He was 75.
Taylor founded Wendover in his living room in 1986 after working in various mortgage and other consumer finance roles within the financial services industry. Prior to working in financial services, Taylor was a canine patrolman.
He initially starting Wendover for a Texas thrift but then later bought it back with Wendover's co-founder in 1990 after the savings and loan went into government conservatorship, according to an article in the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record. The company was named after a local street.
In addition to being a HECM lender, Wendover at one time was the only HECM servicer in the country, according to the funeral home notice. The company often served as a subservicer.
After selling Wendover to State Street Bank in the early 1990s, Taylor helped form the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association in 1997. He later served as a senior vice president overseeing HECM sales and operations for Wells Fargo.
"I think it is accurate to state that if not for Jeff Taylor, there would not be the reverse mortgage industry as we know it today," said NRMLA President and CEO Peter Bell in an online statement.
After retiring from Wells, Taylor remained active as a consultant and was often turned to for advice on reverse mortgages and the
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Jo Trauernicht Taylor; a sister, Lynne Taylor; two daughters and their husbands, Tonya and Brien Brandenburg and Tricia and Pete Bouras; and four granddaughters.
