Paul Fiore On Making Hightechlending A Bigger Reverse Mortgage Player

Paul Fiore enjoys taking on new challenges, something he’s done before during a lengthy stint at American Advisors Group (AAG) and pit stops at Finance of America and Smartfi Home Loans.

Fiore’s reverse mortgage industry journey took another turn recently after he joined California-headquartered HighTechLending (HTL) as its vice president of sales and branch production.

HighTech has a significant presence in forward mortgages, originating $589 million in loans during the past 12 months across 11 branches and 96 licensed loan officers, according to Modex data. And it was the country’s 10th-largest provider of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) in 2025, according to data compiled by Reverse Market Insight.

Fiore recently sat down with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily to discuss his new role and how he plans to spearhead growth at HTL.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Neil Pierson: What did you know about HighTechLending before arriving there and what felt attractive about the role? And what kinds of things are you working on initially to get up to speed?

Paul Fiore: I’ve known HighTech over the years, back when Don Currie was running the company. And I’ve been in the reverse mortgage industry for a very long time, so HighTech was a name I knew quite well.

Really, I started getting to know them better as David Peskin joined and some of my old colleagues did too. I kind of knew Kevin Blakeney, who was working on their call center. We’d talk occasionally, and essentially, when I became available back in September, HighTech was one of the companies I started talking to.

I had seen some interesting things happening there that were not just reverse-related. They had rolled out the EquitySelect product, which I thought was a unique offering in the mortgage space in general.

While they have forward and reverse mortgages, and they have some branches, they really wanted to lean into growing the branch channel and the outside loan officer channel in general. The conversation became interesting: “Hey, here’s an opportunity to take a lot of the things I’ve learned over the years and use my skills as someone who’s led large sales teams and provided company vision to help grow businesses.”

That’s really been my core competency over the years — building something from the ground up into very large-scale businesses. The opportunity to join HighTech, while it’s not ground floor in a lot of ways, it’s taking something that’s pretty small scale today and growing it to a much more substantial size.

NP: Coincidentally, HTL launched a new product this week — a second-lien version of EquitySelect. What is your understanding of that product and the needs it’s attempting to address in the marketplace?

PF: This is day five for me. So, really, what I’m doing right now is a lot of deep diving on product for what would make HighTech a unique value proposition in the market. When you look at EquitySelect in general — first lien and second lien — it fills a gap for us as a competitor to the HELOC product in general.

Take a homeowner with a low interest rate first mortgage. They don’t want to touch it. And we’re in a world right now where I would expect interest rates to remain elevated for an extended period of time. It’s stagnated the refi market in general, but people looking to access additional money look at HELOCs.

When you look at an EquitySelect product, it gives you payment flexibility. It gives you potential access to more money than you would have gotten with other product options. And it’s tailored for people who may not otherwise qualify on a debt-to-income ratio with a HELOC or a traditional forward mortgage product. It fills a niche and becomes this interesting alternative product to HELOCs or even HECMs for some borrowers.

NP: Your new role is very heavy into recruiting. And there’s been a long-running conversation about integrations between the forward and reverse sides of the business. Many experienced forward LOs don’t understand how reverse products work. What are your challenges when talking to these folks about working in a reverse role, educating them when they arrive and coordinating better between the channels?

PF: One of the most important things is making sure there are support pieces in place for people to understand product, teach it the right way and where it fits. When AAG grew — and we grew to 300 salespeople — we had a support system in place that allowed us to really recruit traditional forward mortgage loan officers and transition them into reverse.

It’s disingenuous for any product to ever serve 100% of the marketplace. HighTech has a lot of credibility when it comes to offering products, because we’re not just trying to jam one product to the customer. We’re trying to understand their situation, and my job is to teach our salespeople how to broadly understand traditional products and reverse products so they can uniquely fit the customer.

You have to have a repeatable training program that supports new people being onboarded into your company while also constantly exercising someone’s brain on products they may not be using on a regular basis. You may not see a reverse mortgage for months. And if I just taught it to you in the beginning, and now it’s just sitting there in the background, you may never use it again, right? It needs to be at the forefront of someone’s mind and be taught on a regular basis.

NP: In your conversations with senior clients, what are the major stressors in their lives that would make them consider a reverse mortgage product? There’s a lot of negative news around health care costs and Social Security benefits. And for younger generations having their own struggles saving for retirement, how do you go about educating someone who’s 10 or 20 years out from retirement on the benefits of these products, so they might consider them when it’s time?

PF: It’s about getting over the stigma of what a reverse mortgage is. People for years assumed these were destitute clients that were reaching out because they had no other options. Over the years, we have really tried to educate that this is just another tool in your retirement belt.

My parents have a reverse mortgage. It’s a big line of credit. They don’t really use it, but it’s one of many things they have, along with a pension plan and Social Security income. In certain market environments, if things are really challenging, there might be a good opportunity to utilize your reverse mortgage proceeds, as opposed to tapping into money that’s sitting in stocks that are not doing well. To me, that’s just being holistic in the approach to your overall assets.

These conversations are happening every day, and it’s incumbent upon everyone who sells reverse mortgages to have a holistic conversation with the customer. It’s not just, “Here’s how much money you qualify for and here’s how it works.” How does it affect someone’s everyday life? I’m showing you a five-year or 10-year plan with a reverse mortgage, and how it’s supplementing your situation, so you’re not worried about the cost of goods and other things happening around you.