The top 10 reverse mortgage lenders of 2024

2024 is in the rearview mirror, and with many reverse mortgage professionals naming interest rates as the key challenge that defined the year, performance metrics appear to be bearing that out.

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The reverse mortgage industry’s total annual Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume saw a dip, but there was some shuffling among the leading players on the industry’s leaderboard for the top 10 Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved retail-based HECM endorsements. The data from January through December was compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI).

New top performer

The biggest difference on last year’s leaderboard is that Mutual of Omaha Mortgage overtook Finance of America (FOA) as the leading retail reverse mortgage lender in the country, according to data from RMI. The companies were separated by 203 HECM endorsements logged between January and December.

RMI data shows that in comparison to 2023, FOA’s total endorsement volume was roughly 25% less, but absent from this data is its proprietary, private-label reverse mortgage origination volume. FOA has been heavily promoting its “HomeSafe Second” product for much of the past two years, ever since it reintroduced this product to the market following a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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FOA also announced changes to HomeSafe Second late last year, including a reduction in the interest rate from 9.99% to 9.49%, as well as a rollout to four new states: Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, with more apparently planned for 2025.

Mutual of Omaha, meanwhile, had an eventful year in terms of growing its volume by 12% compared to 2023. In 2024, the company launched a new broker protection program, and it will remain involved with the Funding Longevity Task Force that was reforged in April 2024.

But the company was also named in a lawsuit brought against it by another leading lender, Longbridge Financial. Mutual of Omaha allegedly engaged in deceptive marketing practices based on review websites that Longbridge said are owned by Mutual of Omaha.

The company has yet to respond to the allegations, but the deadline for a response is coming later this month, and court filings indicate the companies are attempting to reach a settlement.

Other movements

Based on the data, the companies in the positions of third through fifth places held their positions on the leaderboard from 2023. Longbridge parent Ellington Financial consistently lauded the reverse lender’s performance despite market turbulence, particularly with proprietary reverse mortgage securitization activity.

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Liberty Reverse Mortgage’s parent company completed a rebrand to become the Onity Group, which is expected to apply to Liberty itself in the coming months. And the company reported improved reverse mortgage utilization in 2024 even as it contended with headwinds impacting the forward and reverse mortgage spaces.

In early 2024, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. rejoined the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) after previous leadership exited the association in 2021. Fairway also reshaped its reverse mortgage division with a new leadership structure, and it saw a key reverse representative join the NRMLA board of directors.

Further down the top 10, South River Mortgage saw a notable year-over-year volume spike in 2024 stemming from its December 2023 transition from broker to direct lender. According to RMI data, South River saw a 319% year-over-year increase in endorsement volume in 2024. The company’s president spoke with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) last year about some of its guiding business principles.

Despite Cherry Creek Mortgage and Guild Mortgage appearing separately on the top 10 leaderboard for 2023, Guild actually acquired Cherry Creek that year due in no small part to its reverse mortgage division, according to Guild CEO Terry Schmidt.

Rounding out the top 10 in 2024 was HighTechLending, which rebranded its wholesale channel as American Senior Lending after longtime reverse mortgage industry executive David Peskin purchased an ownership stake in the company early last year. HighTech grew its endorsement volume by 6% year over year, according to RMI.

The only company not to return to the leaderboard this year in some form is Open Mortgage, which shuttered its reverse mortgage division in late 2023 before shifting its focus entirely to forward third-party originations in August 2024.

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