GrantSpace - Collaboration Hub Reverse Mortgage Counseling Association Participating Organizations Money Management International, Inc., Phoenix, AZ National Council on Aging, Washington, DC National Foundation for Debt Management, Inc., Clearwater, FL Springboard Non-Profit Consumer Credit Management, Inc., Riverside, CA CredAbility f/k/a Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, Atlanta, GA Alliance Credit Counseling, Charlotte, NC Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Forsyth County, Inc., Winston-Salem, NC Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota d/b/a LSS Financial Counseling Service, St. Paul, MN Consumer Credit Management Services, Inc., Delray Beach, FL Primary Contact Name:Chuck Stanley Title:President Email:Chuck.Stanley@MoneyManagement.org Url:http://LearnReverse.org Please note that all data below was derived from the collaboration's nomination for the Collaboration Prize. None of the submitted data were independently verified for accuracy. Formation
Type of Collaboration: Joint Programming to launch and manage one or more programs An alliance or similar collaborative structure through which members retain structural autonomy and have defined roles and responsibilities to achieve specific social goals or purposes Geographic Scope: National Collaboration Focus Area: Education Housing Population Served: Aging and Elderly Year Collaboration was Established: 2008 Goals Sought Through Collaboration: Develop a stronger / more effective "voice" Improve the quality of services / programs Serve more and/or different clients / audiences Reasons Prompting Collaboration: Financial problems / pressures within one or more of the partnering organizations Competition for funding, donors and/or clientele Advancement of a shared goal Who Initiated Collaboration: Board member(s) Number of Participating Organizations: >10 Nature of Funder Involvement: Suggested / encouraged the collaboration Unspecified support Were Partners Added or Dropped?: Yes Consultant Role: To draft the governing agreement or provide other legal advice To facilitate negotiations or discussions that led to the formation of the collaboration To advise on human resources,benefits,or compensation
In early 2006, the National Counseling on Aging (NCOA) met with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to discuss a concept for a nonprofit organization to provide for a more stable, transparent, and sustainable funding mechanism for reverse mortgage counseling. Also, they discussed establishing national operating standards for HUD-approved reverse mortgage counseling organizations and their certified Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage housing counselors. HUD saw possible value in the development of such an organization as long as membership remained voluntary. NCOA met with Money Management International, Inc. (MMI) to explore its interest in pursuing such an association. Along with several other agencies, MMI was interested and volunteered to contribute time and effort to help launch what is now the Reverse Mortgage Counseling Association (RMCA). On March 26, 2008 the three founding RMCA Board Members from MMI, Ivan Hand, Chuck Stanley, and Daniel Fenton, established RMCA as a nonprofit association. Additional board members were appointed to create a diverse and independent 12-member Board of Directors. RMCA membership is open to all HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that provide reverse mortgage counseling and are prepared to meet HUD HECM counseling network standards and meet standards which all members and their reverse mortgage counselors are required to adopt and follow as part of their membership in RMCA. Since its inception, RMCA has been the unified voice for the reverse mortgage counseling industry to the lending and regulatory community by working with industry stakeholders. RMCA has already worked effectively with the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), NCOA, and HUD to transition effectively to a Borrower-Paid Counseling Fee for reverse mortgage counseling after HUD announced the change on May 12, 2008. Management Management Structure: One Executive Director / CEO / President The mission of RMCA is to help reverse mortgage counselors improve the lives of seniors. As a coalition of reverse mortgage counseling agencies and elder care experts, RMCA s objective is to support HUD-approved 501(c)(3) reverse mortgage counseling agencies in the delivery of high quality reverse mortgage counseling services. The RMCA team accomplishes this by creating, promoting, and enforcing operational best practice standards for RMCA members that improve quality and consistency within the reverse mortgage counseling industry. Further, RMCA s Quality Improvement Advisory Council (QIAC), composed of RMCA counseling agency members, makes recommendations to the RMCA Board of Directors on the counseling protocol, on membership standards, and on the code of ethics. The Industry Advisory Council (IAC) is comprised of lenders and industry experts representing a cross-section of the reverse mortgage industry. The members provide input and advice on behalf of the lending community to the management team regarding best practices, market research, analysis of the reverse mortgage industry, and general counseling issues. The IAC elects one ex-officio member to the RMCA Board of Directors. The RMCA structure has provided the following support to its members: 1)Participation in the development of industry best practices that directly improve the ability of reverse mortgage counselors to better respond to the ever-changing needs and options of seniors who are considering a reverse mortgage. 2)Participation in educational industry meetings and conferences. 3)Updates on HUD changes, relevant industry issues, and press releases. 4)Receipt of counseling requests or submissions through listings on the RMCA Web site. 5)A voice with lenders, HUD, NCOA, AARP, regulators, and the media. 6)Quality improvement services and other research. Challenges Challenges to Making the Collaboration Work: Lack of trust among partners Achieving shared vision Raising funds or integrating fund development to support the collaboration Internal and external communication The reverse mortgage counseling industry has from the outset faced funding, legislative, and quality of counseling challenges. These issues are all heavily influenced by HUD and other regulators. Counseling agencies acting independently to bring about positive change through dialogue and educational initiatives with these stakeholders have little chance to make an impact. Working in concert, however, RMCA has been and will continue to be effective in advocating on behalf of its members and seniors to HUD, lenders, NRMLA, and the media with the express objective of improving the reverse mortgage counseling industry. RMCA s membership represents 60% of the reverse mortgage counseling industry and focuses their work through the IAC, Legislative Committee, and QIAC.
Impact
Internal Efficiencies and Effectiveness: Fund development - Access to new / more sources of funding Human resources - Shared and / or improved training and professional development Improved marketing and communications, public relations and outreach - Improved marketing and communications, public relations and outreach Community Impact: Stronger / more effective "voice" Greater range / variety of services/programs offered The value proposition of RMCA to stakeholders in the reverse mortgage counseling industry can be measured by its successful outcomes: 1)In January 2010 RCMA launched a new Web site, www.rmcounseling.org, with educational resources for seniors about reverse mortgages along with an online reverse mortgage counseling agency locator service complete with a counseling registration system. 2)RCMA established an online dispute resolution process whereby any senior or lender can file an inquiry either about an agency or a reverse mortgage counselor for investigation and resolution. 3)RMCA has a national network of over 230 HUD-approved reverse mortgage counseling locations and 300 certified reverse mortgage counselors for seniors to choose from. 4)Seniors and all reverse mortgage counseling agencies benefit directly from RMCA s initiative to improve the quality of counseling provided to seniors and from its research targeted on providing the value of reverse mortgage counseling. 5)As a result of RMCA s collaborative efforts with stakeholders, HUD implemented borrower-paid counseling fees to resolve the system-wide funding challenge spawned by the previous HUD prohibition on the borrowers paying for counseling. RMCA was also instrumental in convincing HUD to amend the rule so that counseling agencies have the choice to offer alternative payment arrangements at loan closings, unless borrowers cannot afford the counseling fee. Model In an effective collaboration, two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals. RMCA s model demonstrates that all collaborations require leadership to be successful. RMCA s diverse and independent Board of Directors provides policy and direction with assistance from RMCA s advisory sub-groups, the QIAC, IAC, and Legislative Committee. RMCA s management team ensures that Board policies are effectively implemented. The reverse mortgage counseling industry is in constant turbulence with seemingly endless changes. To address and assess industry issues, RMCA has established a structural approach: a membership meeting every two weeks and advisory sub-group meetings on a periodic basis, as needed. This process nurtures analysis and communication while producing industry-wide applicable solutions and increasing the success of stakeholders engaged in the process. Efficiencies Achieved
Economic Efficiencies 1) RMCA members that are counseling agencies receive counseling requests that they would otherwise not have received from senior citizens utilizing counseling agency lists on the RMCA Web site and through the RMCA locator software. The methodology of tracking counseling requests received from RMCA is a simple monthly report. 2) RMCA recently added an additional member to the collaboration, Ibis Software Corporation, to produce Sandbox, a HUD-compliant pre-counseling education package for the use of RMCA members, instead of leaving it up to agencies to individually develop solutions. In fact, as noted earlier, RMCA was formed originally as a nonprofit in 2008 to establish national operating best practice standards for HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. HUD recently required that this pre-counseling package be provided to senior citizens prior to counseling and as a part of the implementation of the new reverse mortgage counseling protocol. This software can also be used by lenders to create the required package, thereby increasing the exposure of RMCA s counseling agency lists to seniors. 3) Only lenders and RMCA members can make full use of the Sandbox tool. Benefits to senior citizens and counselors are optimized with the broadest possible use of the tool, so that whichever counseling agency the client chooses, the counselor can effectively access this tool. RMCA has just revised the method by which it calculates monthly membership dues so that fees are based on the volume of counseling sessions provided, thus allowing all agencies to realistically afford to join RMCA. Operating Efficiencies Besides the operating efficiencies enumerated in the earlier section on Management, the newly-created Sandbox product provides for a smooth, efficient, and timely process for senior citizens to receive the required pre-education package, while at the same time, ensuring that counselors can access the same information sent to the seniors. This process both minimizes expense and administrative delays, while providing absolute clarity and shared information between counselor and senior. Example Each counseled client that reaches an RMCA member for reverse mortgage counseling through the collaboration Web site or locator brings $125 in revenue to that agency under HUD s new Borrower-Paid Counseling Fee guidelines. Although many RMCA members do not actually charge the borrower the entire allowed fee, nevertheless, they are able to draw upon other sources of funding, such as grant funds, to realize gain in revenue. Quantitative Community Benefits 1) While RMCA believes that reverse mortgage programs can be beneficial for certain borrowers, we also believe that reverse mortgage counseling is a critical safeguard for seniors, in that it ensures that borrowers receive objective information to assist them in comparing the features of various reverse mortgage products. As unbiased third parties, reverse mortgage counseling agencies educate homeowners about the benefits and costs of a reverse mortgage loan. 2) Network of over 230 HUD-approved reverse mortgage counseling locations that employ more than 300 reverse mortgage counselors across the country from which senior citizens can choose. 3) Quality improvement: Development of industry best practices that directly improve the ability of reverse mortgage counselors to better respond to the ever-changing needs and options of senior citizens who are considering a reverse mortgage. The next stage in 2011 will be to develop a reverse mortgage counselor monitoring process to ensure adherence to the HUD counseling protocol. 4) Research will also be undertaken in 2011 to further understand and prove the value of reverse mortgage counseling so that the service best serves senior citizens evaluating various financial options. 5) Educational and aging-in-place resources on reverse mortgage counseling and online reverse mortgage counseling registration are available on the RMCA Web site. 6) RMCA is the voice for senior citizens and reverse mortgage counseling agencies to AARP, HUD regulators, NCOA, NRMLA, lenders, and the media. Evolution
The initial management structure consisted of three founding board members, an experienced management team that volunteered, or was self-appointed, to employ best practices with which they were familiar. In drawing up initial by-laws, with legal assistance, the visionary founders specified a board of up to 12 members with representatives from the key segments of the reverse mortgage industry. The vision of a unified industry voice is not a new concept in nonprofit leadership, but applying this vision to the reverse mortgage counseling industry was new, while at the same time was widely perceived to be a logical next step by industry organizations. The representative nature of the board makeup contributes to the success of the collaboration, and the fact that by-laws are subject to change when needed is part of that success as well. As mentioned earlier in the Challenges section, the lack of a unified voice was addressed by the formation of committees focused on the key concerns of the members: well-advised council-based decisions, legislation, and quality issues. RMCA is positioned now to make a significant impact on the reverse mortgage industry with a new business model featuring the Sandbox software product that effectively delivers pre-counseling information to seniors citizens in a cost-effective manner that ensures immediate counseling by a member agency. In addition, Sandbox is a way of emulating the effect of the client walking into the office of the counseling agency with their lender-specific loan examples, even though the counseling session is conducted by telephone. This tool is better than a simple paper loan example given by a lender, as it gives the counselor and senior the ability to do what-if scenarios to reflect what could happen if rates or fees change. Success is measured in part by the number of counseling requests received by RMCA member agencies. Reverse mortgage counseling requests have increased appreciably in both September and October from a baseline number of fewer than 100 referrals per month, to over 300 in September. With full utilization of Sandbox, 434 referrals were made in the month of October 2010. This means that more seniors are exploring their financial options with like-minded, quality reverse mortgage counseling agencies that are focused on meeting the needs of senior citizens. The additional funding resulting from these sessions contributes to RMCA s funding as well as that of its member agencies. Some realized and soon-to-be realized benefits of collaboration that could not be achieved individually include: 1) Access by senior citizens to a network of reverse mortgage counseling agencies nationwide. 2) RMCA is in the process of developing and implementing a Senior Membership Program that will assist its senior citizen members to age-in-place in their homes after both the counseling session and the reverse mortgage loan closing are completed. This mirrors the original congressional intent of the reverse mortgage. Membership components will include: a. A quarterly newsletter containing relevant educational information supporting seniors to age gracefully in their homes; b. Participation in both initial and six-month member surveys designed to determine to what extent the reverse mortgage has served its purpose (the purpose of these surveys is to raise the level of knowledge and understanding of aging in place issues and how they can be accomplished using a reverse mortgage); c. A free, co-branded United Networks of America Rx discount drug card; and d. Ongoing reverse mortgage education. 3) The RMCA voice to HUD, regulators, and lenders has produced some optimal industry solutions, such as the policy change to Borrower-Paid Counseling Fee guidelines that allows agencies the option to charge senior citizens for counseling up front or defer payment until the loan closes. 4) The creation and introduction of the Sandbox product could not have been easily achieved by an individual agency. 5) The RMCA QIAC mentioned earlier will undertake research in 2011 to further prove the value of reverse mortgage counseling. 6) An RMCA Legislative Committee mentioned earlier has recently been constituted that will provide education to legislators undertaking legislation on reverse mortgage issues. Copyright 2016 Foundation Center. All Rights Reserved.