MIFSP Broadens Reach To Fill Consumers’ Need for Mortgagor Representatives
Atlanta, Georgia --
Aug 16, 2004 --
For Immediate Release
Having unveiled its own Mortgage Opinion (MO) brand of financial planning in 2003, the Mortgage Institute for Financial Services Professionals (MIFSP) is broadening the base of those qualified to be mortgagor financial representativesTM to include mortgage brokers, loan officers and other mortgage professionals. Today, the majority of consumers are still sitting at the closing table without having discussed the financial aspects of the mortgage transaction with anyone who has a fiduciary responsibility to represent the consumer (mortgagor).That’s because up until now, the consumer hasn’t had his or her own financial representative, but MIFSP is changing that.
The mortgagor financial representative (MFR) brand of financial services was developed by MIFSP to provide consumers standalone mortgage advice and mortgage planning. MIFSP hopes that by expanding the pool of qualified professionals, its brand of mortgage services will become more widely available to consumers.
Leon Morris, RFC, CLU, ChFC, RMP, Executive Director of MIFSP says that initially the concept of a MFR was promoted exclusively to financial planners because they were a natural fit for these fee only services.
However, MIFSP has established the Certified Mortgage Evaluator TM (CME) designation for mortgage professionals who aren’t financial planners.“Certifying mortgage professionals as mortgagor financial representatives also provides the mortgage industry an opportunity to police itself without more government regulation,” says Mr. Morris.
Mr. Morris believes that the consumers are being underserved in today’s mortgage market.“Consumers look to lenders who offer free mortgage advice in conjunction with the loan, but the lender doesn’t represent the consumer and has no fiduciary responsibility to do so. The lender’s goal is to sell a loan, so the advice can’t be totally objective and unbiased and shouldn’t be perceived as such,” says Mr. Morris.
“Without a mortgagor financial representative, to whom the consumer can speak frankly and honestly, they’ll continue to make costly mortgage decisions and may never know how costly some of those decisions are,” says Mr. Morris.
Based on his research on the correlation of a consumer’s mortgage status to the general financial position of the average consumer, Mr. Morris has written a self-help consumer guide entitled Managing Your Mortgage to Financial Independence."Consumers need information in their hands now to help them to better represent themselves until there’re sufficient MFRs to provide a personalized service.I’ve tried to provide information beyond general rules of thumb that’ll help consumers see the connection between their mortgage and their total financial state,” says Mr. Morris.
About MIFSP: The Mortgage Institute for Financial Services Professionals (MIFSP) was founded to create an independent resource for consumers seeking personalized mortgage planning and advice.All MFRs must carry one of the four MIFSP designations: Residential Mortgage Planner, Mortgage Capital Advisor, Mortgage Capital Representative or Certified Mortgage Evaluator.
