Kim Smith on SmartFi’s strategy to grow the reverse mortgage pie

While the reverse mortgage industry has historically relied on specialized originators to drive volume, wholesale lender SmartFi Home Loans is looking elsewhere to expand the market. The company’s growth strategy hinges on “growing the pie” by equipping traditional, forward-centric loan officers with the tools and education needed to seamlessly offer reverse mortgages to their clients.“I hear a lot of people talk about growing the pie — that forward base would be growing the reverse mortgage pie, and that’s our core focus for growth,” Kim Smith, senior vice president of wholesale lending at SmartFi, said. “We are going to continue to support those traditional, reverse-focused originators, but the growth mindset has to be looking at reverses that aren’t even done in the current market.” To execute this strategy, SmartFi is leveraging technology to simplify the origination process for newcomers. The lender recently partnered with Reverse Mortgage Insight (RMI) to integrate its Choice proprietary loan program into RMI’s tech platform, putting the product directly in front of a wider audience. Simultaneously, SmartFi is building out a user-friendly internal partner portal designed to g...