The actor Michael Caine is credited with saying, “Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.” Servicing, at its best, functions like the webbed feet of a duck. Our industry continues to move across what are often turbulent economic waters, propelled forward and secured by the reliable and hardworking efforts of its servicers.

Servicing in the reverse mortgage space is too often misunderstood or diminished as simply the distribution of monthly statements and checks. It is that, but it is also so much more. As a servicer for seniors, customer service (or, as we call it, “borrower care”) personnel become problem solvers, investigators and protectors. Associates are urged to cultivate and maintain an investigative nature to prevent borrower information from falling into the wrong hands.

At Present
In our initial contact with the borrower, we too often hear that the borrower still has many questions about their loan. We advise every servicing associate to treat each and every caller as if they were their parent or grandparent.

Daily borrower care efforts must represent three separate but joined interests: borrowers, clients and the servicing or subservicing company that employs them. From time to time, borrowers will require protection from the people in their lives. In receiving draw requests, associates will hear, “I’m the borrower’s child, what more do you need?” These callers are unaware of what servicers have experienced firsthand. On occasion, those with Powers of Attorney have misused their authority by withdrawing borrower funds without notifying the borrower of the changes being made to the loan. Other times, ex-spouses have attempted to sign for line-of-credit withdrawals or wayward children call impersonating borrowers. The list of fraudulent activities goes on.

While fraud is not pervasive, servicers must have controls in place to protect the borrower. Account passwords are regularly set up, accounts are flagged with warnings to contact the borrower before any changes are made, or to contact

the holder of the Power of Attorney before the borrower makes any changes. If and when necessary, conference calls are set up between multiple parties to sort out issues. As a servicer for seniors (a protected class) and their loans, we take care of the borrower, and that protects our clients.

Moving Forward
Of major importance is accelerating the evolution of reverse mortgage servicing to ease the entrance of baby boomers into a reverse mortgage loan. As a rule, baby boomers entering the reverse mortgage space are better educated and have a better grasp of the reverse mortgage product and information than ever before. They look to the servicer to confirm their understanding of the product and its servicing, not to explain the product to them. Servicers sometimes are asked to review every detail, every calculation and every procedure until the borrower confirms they have what they seek.

Borrower care associates are givers by nature and people who want to go the extra mile to provide assistance. Comments such as, “I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have this reverse mortgage” fuel our efforts. We love what we do, as challenging as it can be.

Borrowers are grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles, and should be serviced and treated with the respect and patience warranted. We will all be walking in their shoes one day. Prominently displayed on the wall of our borrower care department are these words of wisdom from Maya Angelou: “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” For those in reverse mortgage servicing, no truer words have ever been spoken.