In efforts to further extend reverse mortgage education to financial planners and wealth management advisors, top-10 industry lender Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF) this week appointed seasoned retirement and financial planning expert Tom Dickson as National Leader of its Financial Advisor Channel.
Effective immediately, Dickson, who has been educating financial advisors on reverse mortgages for nearly a decade, will be responsible for managing RMF’s “Retirement Experts Network,” an online educational platform designed to help advisors learn more about important retirement issues.
“Tom is highly regarded and widely respected among the financial advisor, wealth management and mortgage communities, and we are thrilled to welcome him to RMF,” said RMF President David Peskin in a press release.
Dickson’s expertise in retirement and financial planning topics includes work with renown reverse mortgage researchers such as Harold Evensky and John Salter, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and his educational webinars aimed at fostering relationships between financial advisors and reverse mortgage professionals.
“We are excited to combine his robust network of relationships and platform-building experience with our industry-leading brand recognition to create an unmatched web-based educational portal for financial professionals,” Peskin stated.
In 2008, Dickson launched a financial experts network platform as a way to build business partnerships between financial advisors, reverse mortgage professionals and academics. Through this platform, Dickson conducted webinars to educate both professionals and consumers on complex and evolving topics, such as the use of reverse mortgages in retirement income planning.
The platform regularly attracted more than 1,500 unique visitors per month, on average, according to RMF, with whom Dickson has been instrumental in helping to develop and launch a similar platform branded as “Retirement Experts Network” and offered by RMF as an educational tool.
“Retirement Experts Network” will host a variety of professional development presentations by speakers who are experts in their respective fields, and will offer members free access to an array of scholarly and topical resources on important financial subjects, including reverse mortgages, Social Security, student financial aid and college planning, divorce planning, Medicare and more.
Most webinars offered through the Network will typically offer Continuing Education (CE) credits to advisors who hold the CFP designation.
Dickson, along with several RMF executives, was part of the MetLife Bank team that secured the funding that supported the academic research at Texas Tech University—research that was conducted by Harold Evensky, John Salter and Shaun C. Pfeiffer, which evaluated the use of a reverse mortgage to supplement retirement income.
While at MetLife, Dickson launched the company’s initiative to educate financial advisors about reverse mortgages and other topics of importance to older adults.
Prior to his time at MetLife Bank, Dickson led sales for the launch of a financial advisor portal backed by Fidelity, Putnam and Franklin Templeton, which grew to over 120,000 registered users.
During his career, Dickson has held Series 6 and 65 securities licenses, helped launch some of the first online brokers and non-proprietary wrap programs, and served as Product Manager for Mellon’s Institutional Custody business.
“I am delighted to join a first-class organization in RMF, whose commitment to educating financial advisors and supporting the expansion of the reverse mortgage market is unmatched,” Dickson said in a release. “The breadth of experience, talent and knowledge that permeates throughout the company is impressive, and I look forward to working with my new colleagues to grow, strengthen and broaden the scope of the very informative ‘Retirement Experts Network’ educational platform.”
Written by Jason Oliva
