Category: Press
For the second year in a row, Assurance Financial made the National Mortgage News list of the top 50 Best Mortgage Companies to Work For! We value our workplace culture, and it shows.
Consideration for this award was based on an employee questionnaire that included topics like role satisfaction, work environment, pay and benefits, training and resources, leadership, and more.
Assurance Financial Reduces Cost Per Loan and Improves Borrower Satisfaction with Appraisal Automation from Reggora
Reggora, an appraisal management software company that is modernizing residential real estate valuation for mortgage lenders, announces outstanding business results with Assurance Financial. By automating its appraisal order management process, Assurance Financial has significantly reduced operating costs and increased borrower satisfaction.
Working with Reggora’s mortgage solutions team Assurance Financial reduced their cost per loan by $150, while also resolving the borrower’s long-standing issues with the appraisal experience — paying for the appraisal, scheduling the inspection, missing escrow deadlines and more. The average turn-time to deliver the appraisal dropped by 7 days, and borrowers rated their appraisal experience an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars.
“Many operations managers may resist the need for digitizing the appraisal process if internal teams are effective,” said Katherine Campbell, Chief Digital Officer at Assurance Financial. “They may think, ‘There is no issue, so if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’ However, this is the bridge that we lenders need to all cross. Regardless of how effective your team is, rote behavior should be replaced by technology. It raises the quality of the employees’ work, which often creates more satisfaction.”
Right now, mortgage interest rates are rising and every day counts when lenders are trying to secure the lowest interest rate possible for their borrowers. Assurance Financial determined that this is the perfect time to implement appraisal management technology to improve operations, reduce cost and increase consumer confidence.
“A fast, convenient digital mortgage is a key part of providing a great borrower experience and our aim is to support that through eliminating pain points in the appraisal process,” said Brian Zitin, CEO and Co-founder of Reggora. “And what’s better for the borrower is also better for the lender. We can improve margins on each loan by eliminating unnecessary costs in a lender’s appraisal operation.”
To learn more about the success that Assurance Financial achieved with Reggora, click here.
Loan Vision Case Study Featuring Assurance Financial
As with all forward-thinking organizations, Assurance Financial is well aware that continuous improvement is a necessity for any business, especially one in the ever-changing mortgage industry. 2019 found Assurance Financial looking for answers. With rapid upgrades to much of their customer-facing technology stack occurring, they knew they had to be able to quantify the spend being made and show some return on investment (ROI), but how? With their volume now averaging $1 billion per year, a far cry from the $25 million they did in their first year of business 18 years prior, Assurance found that their general ledger system could not give them the data they wanted to answer the questions being asked by the business.
“It was an old system that was kind of clunky and not very high tech,” said Chad Hebert, Chief Financial Officer at Assurance. “The capabilities weren’t the best.”
Having made the switch from a generic bookkeeping tool in 2012 to the only industry G/L solution at the time, Assurance felt their prior accounting system had reached the end of its useful life after 7 years. It was affecting the company to the point that the accounting team was having to implement other software to make up for what their current system was lacking. Assurance wanted to make sure their next solution was going to be an all-in-one fix. It needed to not only drive maximum efficiency in accounting, but also help them achieve a better understanding of their true cost to originate a loan, while also allowing them to better measure the ROI on many of the technology investments they had made.
“I think one of the biggest things people think about when investing in technology is how they’re going to get the most out of a tool, not just functionally, but also financially,” says Katherine Campbell, Digital Digital Officer at Assurance. “If they invest in something, what is their ROI going to look like?”
Assurance Financial’s new solution had to be for the long term. It would have to support the growth delivered by an ambitious management team, now and far into the future.
The Solution & The Implementation Experience
Loan Vision was not a new product to Hebert. The talk about Loan Vision had been something he had heard about for several years, as it popped up often during CFO round tables, at conferences, and in other industry events.
“This industry is kind of dominated by two players,” says Hebert. “And when you start hearing that people are making the switch from one to the other, and why they’re making that switch, that’s what led me to pull the trigger.”
What made Hebert most excited about the decision to move, was the solution’s ability to condense many of the support systems and processes into one platform, as their current system’s inability to do so was really weighing on his team.
HousingWire recognized Katherine Campbell, Assurance Financial Chief Digital Officer, with their 2022 Marketing Leaders award.
HousingWire’s Marketing Leaders award celebrates the most creative and influential marketing minds of the housing economy. These leaders have a track record of transforming brands, leading teams, and driving business results within their industries. Through marketing strategies, campaigns, and purpose-driven programs, HW Marketing Leaders are strengthening their brands and building their organizations’ reputations each and every day.
Katherine Campbell is a veteran in the financial services industry and currently serves as the chief digital officer for Assurance Financial. With more than 20 years of digital experience, she is an analytics-driven executive with expertise in web conversion, UI, and technical integrations.
Campbell quickly made an impact when she joined the organization in 2018 and has climbed the ranks to be an influential voice within the company — and the mortgage industry at large. Campbell has hand-selected top-tier technology, adopting and integrating over 20 new solutions since joining Assurance Financial. Campbell understands the industry like no other and has the digital expertise to know what technology the Assurance Financial team needs to stand out as a lender and deliver a superior customer experience. Campbell oversaw the implementation of an improved online application process for borrowers, positioning Assurance Financial as a trusted lender and technology leader.
Check out Katherine Campbell’s feature here.
How Assurance Financial’s Focus on Appraisal Innovation Built a Winning Customer Experience
Creating a digital mortgage space isn’t something you need to be thinking about; it’s something you should already be putting into play. The pandemic exposed a lot of pain points of digitizing the mortgage process and some deficiencies with traditional appraisal operations. Now that consumers have had a taste, it has only accelerated demand for a modern experience.
What’s more, the digital transformation that borrowers demand brings cost savings and efficiency gains for lenders. In a recent webinar, Reggora CEO Brian Zitin spoke with Katherine Campbell, Assurance Financial’s Chief Digital Officer, and its Director of Operations, Scott Alexander, on why they prioritized the digital experience, their approach to implementation, and how they’ve achieved success. The trio discusses how the digitization of the space is happening at lightning speed and how the consumer market has gone from surprise and delight to absolute expectation.
Read more and watch the full interview here.
Written by Darius Thigpen, Reggora
Mortgage Banker Magazine recognized Katherine Campbell, Assurance Financial Chief Digital Officer, with their 2022 “Legends of Lending” award.
The publication asked readers and mortgage professionals to nominate mortgage leaders deserving of the “Legends of Lending” award. They set out to find the most talented, ambitious, and legendary individuals who achieve excellence and make a difference in the mortgage industry.
Check out Katherine Campbell’s feature below. Read the full May/June 2022 edition of Mortgage Banker Magazine here.
