Exclusive: Longbridge Launches Broker Pipeline Protection Program

Reverse mortgage lender Longbridge Financial this week introduced RetentionIQ, a program designed to protect the loan pipelines of broker partners by addressing the persistent tension between retail and wholesale businesses at multichannel lenders.

Previously, partners had to contact Longbridge directly if one of their borrowers was approached by the lender’s retail team. In these cases, the retail team would back off, but the process was informal and became difficult to manage as the company expanded.

“It’s our responsibility as a lender to service the borrowers in our portfolio,” Adrian Prieto, senior vice president of wholesale lending and third-party affiliates at Longbridge, said in an exclusive interview with HousingWire. “But we also are sensitive and respect that many of these borrowers were originated by a trusted partner.”

​​Founded as a small brokerage in 2012 and sold a decade later to Ellington Financial, Longbridge has grown on the wholesale side. The lender now services roughly 50,000 borrowers, representing about $15 billion in managed loans, Prieto said. Wholesale accounts for about 75% of Longbridge’s overall business, with more than 1,300 approved partners, he added.

According to Prieto, the new program is meant to create a more structured approach. RetentionIQ prevents Longbridge’s retail team from contacting borrowers in a broker’s active pipeline, automatically directing these customers back to their original advisers. It uses automated logic to the loan origination system to determine how outreach should occur.

It also monitors common refinance intent signals, such as payoff requests. If refinance activity originates elsewhere, servicing communications can reinforce the original partner relationship by featuring that partner in borrower outreach, the company explained.

“If the partners have an active loan in our pipeline, and are signed up for RetentionIQ, Longbridge’s retail team automatically will not reach out to that partner’s borrower,” Prieto said. “That’s an automated safeguard to protect our partner and their borrower. That’s something we didn’t have before, but it applies to anybody that’s approved with Longbridge that signs up for RetentionIQ.”

The program is available to all brokers and principal agents approved by signing up at the Longbridge Partner Portal.

In addition to the automated protections, the initiative includes proactive communication. When borrowers enter the servicing portfolio, Longbridge sends mailers after one, three and six months that include the originating company’s contact information. Internally, a dedicated marketing team works alongside account executives to manage the process.

“We understand many borrowers always want to gravitate to their original trusted adviser, but this is an added step to make sure that we keep them front and center for the partner,” Prieto said.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen over the next year or two with rates, but we want to be prepared. Our timing is good in that sense,” he added.

Other major reverse lenders have taken similar steps in recent years. In October 2024, Mutual of Omaha Mortgage’s reverse division launched “Broker Protect.”

The company promises to not solicit partners’ borrowers while excluding these customers from outbound marketing campaigns. It also alerts partners to potential refinance business and when a payoff is ordered.

The program also adds the broker’s name to the borrower’s monthly servicing statement so that an interested borrower can contact them directly for a refinance opportunity.