New
York-based
multichannel
lender


US
Mortgage
Corporation
is
expanding
its
efforts
in
the
reverse
mortgage
space,
illustrating
its
focus
on
growth.
The
company
recently
hired
reverse
mortgage
industry
veteran
Ken
Krajewski
to
serve
as
its
managing
director
and
head
of
reverse
mortgage
lending.

US
Mortgage
recently
surpassed
30
years
in
business.
The
expansion
of
its
dedicated
reverse
lending
division,
which
has
been
active
for
more
than
a
decade,
follows
on
other
recent
trends
that
have
seen
more
forward
mortgage
companies

entertain
the
addition
or
expansion
of
reverse
mortgage
products
to
their
suite
of
offerings.

To
get
a
better
idea
of
the
company’s
ambitions
in
the
space,
RMD
sat
down
with
Krajewski
and
US
Mortgage
President
Scott
Milner
to
discuss
the
move
further.

Business
alignment

Krajewski
most
recently
served
as
vice
president
and
head
of
reverse
mortgage
lending
at


University
Bank,
and
he
joined
US
Mortgage
earlier
this
month.
He
said
the
company
attracted
him
because
of
its
goals
to
expand
more
broadly
into
reverse
mortgages.

“I
was
actively
looking
for
an
opportunity
with
a
mortgage
organization
that
wanted
to
either
grow
or
start
a
reverse
mortgage
business,”
he
said.
“It
was
important
to
me
to
align
myself
with
an
organization
that
had
the
core
values
that
I
do,
of
being
passionate
about
the
reverse
mortgage
product
and
about
helping
the
people
that
it
serves.”

A
conversation
with
the
US
Mortgage
executive
team
led
him
to
believe
that
it
was
the
right
place
to
go,
since
Krajewski
detected
an
alignment
between
his
own
goals
and
those
of
the
company.

“[Since
I]
wanted
to
participate
in
growing
a
reverse
mortgage
business,
it
was
clear
to
me
that
US
Mortgage
was
[the
company]
I
needed
to
align
myself
with,”
he
said.

The
larger
goal

When
asked
why
the
company
was
interested
in
expanding
its
presence
in
the
reverse
space,
Milner
said
it
came
down
to
both
finding
the
right
person
for
the
job
and
determining
the
best
course
through
a
challenging
period
for
the
entire
mortgage
business.

“I
think
in
a
lot
of
ways,
you
have
to
look
at
this
business,
whether
it’s
on
the
forward
side
or
the
reverse
side,
and
just
decide
if
you’re
going
to
dig
in
and
look
to
grow
or
scale
back
and
hibernate,”
Milner
said.

“Both
forward
and
reverse
are
very
susceptible
to

interest
rate
rises,
volume
declines,
guideline
changes
and
credit
tightening.
But
when
we
sit
back
and
look
at
who
the
company
is
—
we
just
celebrated
our
30th
anniversary
last
month
—
we’ve
driven
the
company
based
on
certain
ideologies
and
a
mission
that
everybody
deserves
a
roof
over
their
head.”

Reverse
mortgages
align
with
that
goal
by
further
considering
the
senior
population
in
its
wider
mission,
especially
when
taking

demographic
trends
into
account,
Milner
said.

“To
me,
reverse
is
really
a
natural
outlet
to
help
with
that
mission,”
he
said.
“It’s
no
secret
what
the
statistics
say
about
the
population
growth
and
the
aging
population
changes
that
we’re
seeing.
When
I
think
about
the
reverse
product
specifically,
it
really
is
such
a
unique
product
in
the
sense
that
it
is
really
part
of
a
life-planning
exercise.
And
I
love
the
idea
that
we
can
get
so
deep
with
these
clients
and
really
impact
their
lives
for
the
better.”

Forward-reverse
divide

With
the
addition
of
more
forward
mortgage
companies
to
the
space
recently,
a
natural
question
comes
up
about
what
kind
of
professionals
to
hire
—
either
dedicated
reverse
mortgage
specialists
who
know
how
this
kind
of
transaction
works,
or
forward
specialists
who
can
be
trained
in
the
particulars
of
reverse.

When
asked
which
way
US
Mortgage’s
plans
are
going,
Krajewski
said
that
it
comes
down
to
expanding
the
available
options
for
the
company’s
existing
professionals.

“What
we
plan
on
doing
is
using
an
internal
accreditation
or
certification
program
where
we
can
offer
forward
mortgage
loan
officers
the
ability
to
become
certified
to
do
reverse
mortgages,
and
in
which
case
those
loan
officers
would
be
hybrid,
capable
of
handling
both
forward
and
reverse,”
Krajewski
said.

“Those
who
don’t
want
to
go
through
that
training,
education
and
certification
can
choose
to
continue
as
forward
mortgage
loan
officers,
and
then
we
will
provide
them
an
outlet
to
refer
any
reverse
mortgage
opportunities
they
have
to
our
dedicated,
nationwide
retail
reverse
mortgage
team,
which
we
are
aggressively
growing
right
now,”
he
added.

Seeking
a
‘fresh
perspective’

The
confidence
in
this
approach
also
comes
from
US
Mortgage’s
desire
to
continue
growing
even
as
the
broader
mortgage
industry
faces
notable
headwinds,
Krajewski
said.

“I’ve
aligned
myself
with
an
organization
that
has
been
around
for
a
long
time,
that
has
seen
the
good
times
and
the
bad
times,
and
has
continued
to
weather
whatever
storms
they
have
faced,”
he
said.
“As
Scott
said,
they’ve
been
in
business
for
30
years.
They
want
to
grow
and
that
says
a
lot
about
an
organization
in
the
environment
we’re
in.”

Because
the
infrastructure
of
the
division
has
been
in
place
for
a
while,
Milner
added,
the
primary
goal
becomes
about
sharing
the
company’s
broader
value
proposition
to
the
reverse
mortgage
sector.

“So,
for
us,
the
question
is
focused
on
how
we
give
people
a
fresh
perspective
on
this,”
he
said.
“I
think
we
can
deliver
that
kind
of
fresh
value
proposition
with
a
company
that’s
got
all
that
stability
over
the
last
30
years.

“So,
as
we
grow
the
division,
that’s
going
to
be
where
we,
especially
Ken
and
I,
focus
on
—
just
getting
that
messaging
out
there
and
showing
how
we
could
be
different
but
also
impactful.”

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