Movement’s reverse mortgage leaders on forming better sales strategies

At a time when some reverse mortgage lenders are struggling to bring new business through the door, Movement Mortgage is an example of a company that’s posting modest growth through organic lead generation and purpose-driven leadership.

Sales leaders from South Carolina-based Movement took the stage at last week’s Reverse Mastermind Summit in Tennessee to offer insights on how they’re serving the senior demographic through highly personalized service while moving away from paid leads and call-center blueprints.

Harlan Accola, the company’s reverse mortgage director, detailed executive-level strategies for dealing with the baby boomer retirement crisis and argued that companies should form specialized divisions for reverse lending. George Vrban offered an inside look at how he became Movement’s top reverse producer through personalized attention and creative financial solutions.

Accola: ‘I hate being mediocre’

Accola, who joined Movement from Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. (now Fairway Home Mortgage) in 2023, opened his presentation by urging audience members to reject mediocrity and commit to a deeper purpose by serving as retirement planning experts rather than just reverse mortgage salespeople.

He referenced an encounter from years ago with Zig Ziglar, the late author and motivational speaker, who helped him to understand that financial success in sales is a natural byproduct of having a genuine interest in improving others’ lives. Accola said that Movement Mortgage looks to embody this concept through philanthropic efforts, including a national charter school network.

“‘When I stopped worrying about money, I stopped worrying about myself, and I started caring about other people more than myself. The dollar bills just came and played in my backyard,’” Accola recalled of the advice given by Ziglar.

When it comes to serving senior homeowners, Accola said there’s deep and untapped opportunity through the roughly 72 million baby boomers who are often unprepared for retirement. He alluded to the median retirement account balance of $200,000 for those ages 65 to 74, according to a Federal Reserve survey, which does not go far when considering expenses like long-term care. But the $14 trillion in senior home equity could provide a lifeline.

“We’re the least prepared generation and the wealthiest generation that has ever lived on the face of the earth. And we have no idea how to use home equity,” Accola said of boomers. “You should not have a mortgage payment when you’re going into retirement. The math will not bear it.”

He went on to call out industry professionals who brand themselves as reverse mortgage experts but lack the knowledge to back it up — an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in which a person drastically overestimates their competency in a specific skill set.

To be a true expert, he said, reverse mortgage originators must deeply understand the math behind refinancing a low-rate forward mortgage into a reverse loan — as well as a host of ancillary subjects like tax strategies, Social Security, IRA conversions, life insurance and Medicare.

To do this effectively, full specialization in reverse is the optimal choice. Accola said that when he stopped doing forward mortgages, he saw his production soar, and he sets a minimum bar of 25 reverse mortgages per year for anyone who joins his team.

“I hate being mediocre,” he remarked. “Do you want to get operated on by a mediocre surgeon or do business with anybody who’s just kind of mediocre? ‘They’re just kind of OK.’ I don’t want to and neither does anybody else.”

Vrban’s grassroots growth strategy

Modex data shows that Vrban originated $97.1 million in reverse mortgages for the year ending in March 2026. His average loan size was $741,000 across 131 units, and he averaged more than 10 closings per month at a time when the typical reverse loan officer does less than one.

“I didn’t know I was going to get 100 loans a year nine years ago. But you know what I did? I put it down on paper,” he told the audience. “I grew my business organically. I never bought any leads … no paid leads, no advertising, no call center. I just did it the old-fashioned way.”

Vrban is helping to push Movement higher on the industry leaderboard. Data compiled by Reverse Market Insight shows that the company endorsed 165 Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) during the first four months of this year — up 8% from the same period last year and ranking No. 9 nationally.

The underserved referral market

His core philosophy and career arc, he said, are built on commitment and action. Nearly a decade ago, he pivoted to exclusively originate reverse mortgages and identified financial planners as an underserved referral market that needed to be mined.

“They’re interviewing you at the same time you’re trying to get business from them, and if they feel you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, they’re not going to trust you with their clients,” Vrban said. “So you have to be good at your craft, you have to study, you have to understand this product.”

After spending six months refining his pitch to planners, he closed 40 loans in the next six months. Today, he said, 50% of his business comes from financial planners, outweighing another 30% tied to internal company leads. Movement relies on a model in which forward LOs and other employees refer reverse lending needs to specialists like Vrban.

His daily routine includes five to seven Zoom meetings across roughly two dozen states, a pattern he said was developed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and grew during the shutdown as senior clients became more comfortable with video conferencing.

“I won’t do my business over the phone,” Vrban said. “I want to see their facial expressions. I want to see the body language. These are all critical pieces to see if they’re understanding the messaging of the presentation.”

He splits his calls into two parts — one where he listens, asks questions and educates the client on broad reverse mortgage concepts; and a second where he offers specific numbers and covers the application, counseling and closing steps.

Vrban has specific strategies for financial planners with clients who don’t have a mortgage, such as funding long-term care costs and life insurance premiums, or hedging against sequence-of-returns risk. For senior homeowners who still have mortgage debt, he often gets creative to eliminate their monthly payment, free up cash flow and implement beneficial tax strategies.

“We have to be able to adapt. You have to be solution conscious. I can’t tell you how many people in this industry see [borrowers] upside down 100 grand. I’m sitting there going, ‘I’ll take that one,’” Vrban said.