NRMLA co-chair outlines reverse mortgage advocacy plan

The reverse mortgage industry’s premier trade association held its first event of 2025 this past week. While the mood was generally upbeat among the roughly 150 attendees who made the journey to Irvine, California, for the event hosted by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), there was also an acknowledgement of challenges faced by the industry when it comes to getting the word out about reverse mortgages.

During a panel about the industry’s advocacy work to begin the day’s events, Jim Cory — the co-chair of NRMLA and managing director of reverse mortgages at Guild Mortgage — spoke about what the industry hopes to achieve in connecting with a broader pool of mortgage industry and adjacent professionals to communicate about the product.

Hatching a plan

Describing this year’s outreach effort as originating during the NRMLA Annual Meeting and Expo last year in San Diego, Cory described how the new effort required taking stock of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to industry advocacy.

“When we look at what NRMLA does, it’s excellent work,” he said. “But a lot of it goes unnoticed. What does get noticed is the number of loans we do — the size of the industry. And frankly, what we have is a distribution problem.”

To solve this, the industry will require more people talking about and originating reverse mortgages in a concerted effort to overcome the “incredibly low” penetration rate, he explained.

The overall rate — consistently estimated to be about 2% of the total mortgage market — is far too low “for a product with such a high satisfaction rate,” he explained.

To that end, NRMLA and co-chairs Cory and Mike Kent have devised a plan consisting of “a multiyear, long-term, permanent program where we want to raise awareness of reverse mortgages among related industries, associations and groups,” Cory explained.

This will be focused on trying to drive awareness in areas that the association believes can make the biggest difference, with reverse mortgages for purchase cited as a key example.

Cory is already a well-known advocate for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase (H4P) program — and he has spoken about that work with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) on multiple occasions.

But he also has a passion for industry advocacy, which he credited in the discussion as one of the reasons he chose to take on the role of NRMLA co-chair.

“One of the biggest areas we’re looking at is reverse for purchase,” he said. “We just think it’s an amazing product. And if reverse mortgages are underutilized, reverse for purchase is so underutilized, it’s almost criminal.”

Hitting the road

Cory added that he and other industry representatives will be going on the road to various events in an effort to kick off this initiative. He encouraged NRMLA attendees to join him and their industry colleagues.

“When I look at this challenge — this ‘distribution’ issue — I think we need everyone’s help,” he said. “For too long, we’ve treated reverse as our little program, something to hold onto. But we need each and every one of you, in this room, in the association and across the reverse industry, to be stewards of the program. We need to spread the word to other originators. The rising tide lifts all boats.”

Expecting other professionals to take up reverse mortgage origination without input from industry experts would be a daunting challenge. Cory appealed to attendees to make their voices heard because of their product experience.

“We are the experts,” he said. “We’re the ones who really know this program. And instead of holding onto our little plot of land, we need to be spreading the word, bringing more people in and teaching them to do it the right way.”

Knowing what’s needed

Cory put particular emphasis on that last point — reverse mortgages have had longstanding reputational issues stemming from a perception that the business does not treat its customers well.

But the modern class of industry professionals has seen what additional regulation and a service-based mindset has meant for customers, due to the satisfaction rate he cited.

“We know we’re working with older Americans, a protected class,” he said. “They need extra levels of service, extra levels of trust. You all provide that. And we need to teach others to do that as well. But to do that, we need more people out there, increasing distribution of this program.”

Cory added that for anyone who originates both forward and reverse mortgages, it can serve as a powerful illustration of potential value for an older customer.

“What we need is for the average forward originator — every time they see a borrower who’s 62-plus, or even 55-plus — they should be offering a reverse mortgage option,” he said of the plan’s goals.

“Whether that’s reverse for purchase, a cash-out refi or someone looking at a HELOC, once they identify that their borrower is of age, they should be offering a reverse mortgage.”

Placing forward and reverse products together for a customer can result in the reverse mortgage often looking “better in so many ways,” Cory said.