Guild’s Jim Cory on corporate confidence in reverse mortgages

At the end of August, Guild Mortgage has announced a range of products called ‘Flex Payment Mortgage’, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage products, in addition to refinances, proprietary jumbo options and HECM for Purchase (H4P) loans.

Jim Cory, director of Guild’s reverse division, previously spoke with HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) on that rebranding initiative and what the division has in mind following Guild’s acquisition of the robust reverse mortgage division of Cherry Creek Mortgage early 2023.

In the second part of his interview with RMD, Cory assesses Guild’s confidence in the reverse mortgage product, and where his division is focused at year-end.

Trust after the takeover

Earlier this year, Guild Mortgage CEO Terry Schmidt spoke at The Gathering by HousingWire in Scottsdale, Arizona, about the investments Guild has made in its reverse mortgage division following its acquisition of Cherry Creek.

“With Cherry Creek, [our interest] was reversed,” Schmidt said at the April event. “Now we have a good reverse mortgage department at Guild, and they’re doing really great recruiting there, so we’re learning a lot.”

Schmidt went on to say that the size of the company’s overall mortgage portfolio means that many customers already using the company’s services are moving closer to the age eligible for a HECM.

“There is a large portion of those customers who reach that age [a reverse mortgage] could be their next type of transaction,” she said. “Aging and demography [provide] great opportunity. It’s a great product to have, so we see it as a growing niche.”

For Cory, the commitment Guild has shown to the reverse mortgage division is evident.

“The company has made a huge investment in reverse,” he said. “We manage most of our own loans on both the traditional side and the back end. ‘Customer for life’ is something Guild talks about a lot, even before this reverse format was added, and this is a perfect combination [to earn the business] from a customer for life.”

The overall mindset of a “customer-for-life” strategy would be incomplete if later life wasn’t part of the equation, Cory said.

“I always like to say that you can’t really present a ‘customer for life’ if you don’t have a reverse mortgage offer,” he said. “Our division fits in perfectly with this. And our marketing team is world-class and does all kinds of great things, and we’re just now starting to leverage that with reverse mortgages.”

Looking ahead to 2025

Guild’s reverse division enters 2025 in a strong position within the reverse mortgage industry.

According to HECM approval data for August in tabular form Reverse market insight (RMI), Guild/Cherry Creek has risen from No. 8 in August 2023 to No. 7 a year later, growing its market share from 1.3% a year ago to 2.5% today. Unlike most of the industry, the majority of its operations are conducted in Colorado, according to RMI.

The current activities and the long-term strategy through rebranding follow the division’s plans, Cory explains.

“It’s all part of the plan,” he said. “This is the plan we’ve been rolling out since most of this team came over after the Cherry Creek acquisition, which was almost a year and a half ago now. The goal was to further roll out this product, making it easier and simpler. We really believe in simplifying the message.”

Like other companies that tend to lead with their term mortgage offerings and then add the reverse as an additional product, Guild doesn’t necessarily think that intensive HECM specialization is the path to growth for the company as a whole, as Schmidt indicated in April. Still, Cory is a longtime veteran of the reverse mortgage industry and sees the benefits of a broader approach to specialization.

“I have to admit that having been in this industry for about 27 years, we have made it difficult over the years by suggesting that you need specialization to offer this,” he said. “And while I agree that on the operational side – whether it’s your lending system, other software or other marketing – you definitely need specialization.

“Different customers and their pace also play a role. But ultimately, we believe this is a relatively simple product when compared to other traditional mortgage options. There are more similarities than differences.”

Demystifying Reverse Mortgages

However, despite the relative simplicity for the practitioners themselves, companies need to make more of an effort to “demystify” reverse mortgages, Cory said, and that’s what Guild Mortgage wants to do with its rebranding initiative. But with that must also come a robust educational program to educate more people on the dynamics of the reverse mortgage product.

“We don’t recommend anyone roll it out to inexperienced creators without preparation,” he said. “That’s why we implemented all these systems: training is the first priority, but also support through the original system software, point of sale and more. There is a lot that goes into building the trust of our traditional loan officers.”

Some may benefit from a walkthrough process similar to an internship, while others may get started more quickly.

“Some of my long-time colleagues have raised concerns — not about Guild specifically — but about progressive creators trying to roll this out to the masses without the proper support,” Cory said. “We have all these different methods to make this happen, and I think that’s a really important point.”