Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. has added Cheryl Canzanella to a role overseeing Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) business development with a focus on retirement solutions, the company announced on Monday. She arrives at Fairway with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, having previously served in leadership and management roles.
In her new role, Canzanella will specifically work to further bolster the educational partnership Fairway maintains with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), and is uniquely qualified for her new role by having served as a past president of Jacksonville, Fla.’s NAIFA chapter. She is also a past recipient of the NAIFA-FL president’s award and has also been recognized as the 2019 NAIFA National Young Advisor Team Leader of the Year.
“Among advisors and older-adult homeowners, there is a need for greater awareness and understanding of home equity products and how they can enhance a sound retirement plan,” said Harlan Accola, Fairway’s national reverse mortgage director. “We knew it was critical to have someone in this role with Cheryl’s skill set and knowledge base. We are always looking to improve the business relationships between our loan officers and trusted financial advisors, and Cheryl is a great step in that direction.”
For her part, Canzanella describes being enticed by the culture and overall mission of Fairway’s reverse mortgage division, seeing a direct ability to serve it.
“What lured me to Fairway is the people, culture, and leadership,” Canzanella says. “I am thrilled to be part of a company that is tremendously committed to providing financial professionals and older-adult consumers with educational resources on mortgage-related matters, especially around how they factor into retirement planning and long-term care.”
Fairway first announced its partnership with NAIFA in August 2020, which positioned the lender as a subject matter expert in NAIFA’s Limited & Extended Care Planning (LECP) Center.
“A lot of the forward people never have had a relationship with a financial advisor,” Accola said at the time the partnership was announced. “We believe they should, because it will allow them to help people in their 40s and 50s. Informing them that they don’t have to pay off the house because they can get a reverse mortgage at 62 could allow them to invest more money now.”
As part of the arrangement, Fairway provides educational materials for NAIFA-sponsored events like webinars, blog posts and print pieces in the association’s Advisor Today magazine publication. Additionally, the two organizations planned to collaborate through the LECP Center to further the education of financial planners and consumers on a host of mortgage-related topics, including the greater incorporation of home equity into retirement planning.
Last month, Accola obtained his own reverse mortgage loan and described the experience of obtaining it for RMD. The lender has also been making additional inroads in its development of HECM for Purchase (H4P) business, describing some of its methods and having recently appointed a new, dedicated H4P business development manager.
According to HECM endorsement data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI), Fairway is the eighth-largest reverse mortgage lender in the country, logging 2,016 endorsements over the 12-month period ending in April, 2022.
