Key facts
- Morrell said HELOC for Seniors generates about $5 million a month in volume for Longbridge.
- Longbridge built the HELOC for Seniors product on Figure Technology Solutions' platform, Morrell said.
- Morrell said Longbridge lowered the Platinum suite's minimum loan amount to $300,000 and expanded into more states.
- Morrell said insurance agents and financial advisors cannot be paid for reverse mortgage referrals.
Larissa Morrell, a former director of sales logistics and development at Reverse Mortgage Funding, was named to lead product development across Longbridge's technology, operations, compliance and sales teams, according to an interview with HousingWire's Reverse Mortgage Daily. She has more than 25 years of industry experience, and the promotion followed the lender's moves to expand beyond traditional reverse mortgages.
Morrell said she helped launch HELOC for Seniors, a home equity line of credit aimed at older borrowers that offers interest-only payments and a funding timeline of as little as five business days. She said the product was built on Figure Technology Solutions' platform through a relationship held by Longbridge CEO Chris Mayer, which shortened development to about a year.
She said the product generates about $5 million a month in volume and that Longbridge initially launched it online without a dedicated sales team before adding salespeople to support borrowers through the process. She said the company plans to widen distribution through wholesale partners.
On Longbridge's Platinum proprietary reverse mortgage suite, Morrell said rates have risen slightly from the 7.99% level announced about a year earlier, and that the company lowered the minimum loan amount to $300,000 and expanded into additional states. She described a Platinum Promise feature giving borrowers 30 days from application to opt out if qualification terms change, and a Platinum Preserve option that lets borrowers protect part of their home value for heirs.
Morrell said the typical reverse mortgage borrower is younger than in past decades, sometimes still working and using the loan to pay off credit card debt or cover expenses. She said insurance agents and financial advisors cannot be paid for reverse mortgage referrals, which limits partnerships with firms such as MetLife, where she previously worked.