Federal Housing Administration commissioner Brian Montgomery will serve as the keynote speaker at the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Expo later this month, NRMLA has announced. The meeting will take place October 28-30 in San Diego, and NRMLA expects between 450 and 500 attendees.

Montgomery is scheduled to address attendees at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 30. FHA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing, Gisele Roget, will also be in attendance, NRMLA CEO Peter Bell told RMD.

“The fact that they do make the trip to come to a relatively small constituency in HUD circles demonstrates a commitment to the program,” Bell said.

NRMLA’s announcement stated that the discussion at the meeting would include HUD’s “policy priorities and the state of the HECM program.”

Before Montgomery speaks, Reverse mortgage professionals will have a lot to catch up on the first two days. A wide variety of topics are on the agenda — including the most recent appraisal changes with respect to HECM loans — with a general focus on ways to drive business forward after the industry’s challenging fiscal year 2018, Steve Irwin, NRMLA’s executive vice president told RMD.

“The content will focus on the current state of affairs, and our hope is that we provide insights for more forward-looking strategic development,” he said. “We have to accommodate change from our insurer and from our regulators, but we as an industry must look for new ways of doing business and new ways of thinking.”

Attendees will have multiple opportunities to learn more about the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages appraisal process and its recent changes. One session will feature a panel led by NRMLA’s HUD Issues Committee co-chair Elly Johnson, Irwin said.

“It will be a deep dive into the new guidance, interpreting the guidelines, anticipating procedural change, how — as an industry — we can anticipate outcome, working through bottle necks and enhancing customer experience through the changes,” Irwin said.

During another session, an appraiser-led panel will provide a walkthrough of the appraisal process, detailing what lenders can expect, as well as the biggest challenges facing appraisers and appraisal management companies, Irwin said.

Other meeting highlights are a reverse mortgage intensive session on Tuesday afternoon for those new to the industry, and sessions on  macroeconomics; the new proprietary reverse mortgages; using social media for lead generation and the compliance involved; and the newest products on the market.

“We will also have a great session on creating a unique identity and brand for yourself for the sales people in attendance,” Irwin said. “We’ll also have a discussion on the new proprietary products, and we’ll even have some discussion about products that allow the access of the equity that aren’t technically reverse mortgages.”

Want to meet RMD at NRMLA? We’ll be there! Send us a note at [email protected].

Written by Maggie Callahan