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Marion McDougall, CEO, Celink By Darryl Hicks
FOR TWO DECADES, Celink has been the nation’s leading subservicer of reverse mortgages. Celink’s clients own the servicing rights to the loans they originate but contract with Celink to handle the administration part, whether it’s disbursing loan pay-
Reverse Mortgage magazine sat down with McDougall to learn about the challenges that come with servicing reverse mortgages, technology that has been developed to improve servicing efficiencies and steps that loan officers can take to improve the customer experience. Reverse Mortgage: Since becoming CEO of Celink, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about servicing reverse mortgages? Marion McDougall: The reverse mortgage is poised to become the most critical product in our country. One in six Americans is age 65 and older. Their retirement savings range between $150,000 to $200,000, depending on which articles you read. This is not enough to age in place and effectively main- tain a home. More than 80 percent of seniors’ net worth is tied up in home equity. That tells me reverse mortgages will be viable for a long time. The next big question is, how do we solve that? It’s a vital product. The data supports that. We have plenty of resources in the U.S. to produce the product. But it’s not happen- ing. It’s still a very small volume. That, in my view, can change and should change. At the end of the day, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that scale matters in
Marion McDougall
ments, handling customer service calls or working with the owners or the estate to pay off the loan once the property is permanently vacated. Marion McDougall has served as CEO of Celink since May 2021. She is also CEO of Compu-Link Corp., which services HECMs that have been assigned to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Before joining Celink, McDougall owned a consult- ing firm. She also held executive roles at Caliber Home Loans, MetLife Home Loans and First Horizon Home Loans. She has more than 30 years of financial services experience in the United States and internationally, focused on mortgage and retail banking with a partic- ular emphasis on servicing, business development and client relations.
10 REVERSE MORTGAGE / SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024
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