22
Aug
pencil

Client Bulletin: August 21, 2023

Latest Updates Enhance How Homeowners Work with Us

We’re continually enhancing how your homeowners interact with us, as part of our mission to provide the best experience for them. We’ve recently rolled out a slate of new digital features to help homeowners whenever they need assistance, which include the following:

  • More Help with Assumptions – Homeowners can now receive step-by-step instructions on how to get started with an assumption from our Virtual Assistant homeowner bot. The bot allows the homeowner the opportunity to transfer to a chat with a live agent at any time, should the homeowner prefer to receive assistance that way. In addition, on the CenNet homeowner website, “assumptions” now appears as a main menu topic under the “Education & Goals”.
  • Get Assistance Faster – Messaging at the top of the CenNet landing page now encourages homeowners to use the “Chat With Us” feature instead of using the secure message box, which enables homeowners to get an answer to their questions faster.
  • Co-borrower email address – Co-borrowers can now add an email address to be associated with the account so that more than one person associated with the account can enroll in paperless.
  • HELOC payments – Homeowners who are behind on repaying their HELOC can now make multiple payments at one time; previously, this option was not available.

These are just a few of the improvements we’ve made and will continue to make to the homeowner experience. If you have any questions, please reach out to your client manager.

 

Enhancing How Homeowners Remove PMI

We’re constantly striving to provide your homeowners with the very best service. This includes offering more ways for them to do business with us, so that they can manage their loan whenever, wherever and however they please.

Earlier this year, we launched our Mortgage Insurance Cancellation automation, which eliminates a common pain point for homeowners: waiting to hear back on a determination to learn whether their request to remove PMI has been accepted. Now, homeowners are able to go to the CenNet homeowner website, and request to have PMI removed, triggering our automation. Our system immediately receives the request, speeding up the process and allowing the appropriate letter to be sent to the homeowner within a week. This option can be found on the “Manage Mortgage Insurance” tile on CenNet’s “My Loan” page.

We’ve also introduced PMI removal by phone, through our IVR, for eligible homeowners.

In light of these enhancements, our email inbox at pmi@loanadministration.com is no longer in use. Homeowners who prefer not to use the website or IVR can still request PMI removal by faxing us at (609) 718-5271 or by mailing a request to:

Mortgage Insurance Department
P.O. Box 77412
Ewing, NJ 08628

We encourage use of our new digital methods, as they allow for quicker resolution of the homeowner’s request.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your client manager.

New Homeowner Email List Now on CenAccess

We have posted a list on CenAccess of all of the emails that we send to homeowners.

To access this list, go to the Training & Reference menu on CenAccess, and select “User Manuals.” The file name is “Email Listing for Clients 08.15.23.”

This file is updated with the most-recent list of homeowner emails once each month.

 

Digital Homeowner Experience Expands with Email Payment Reminders

We’re committed to providing the very best customer experience for your homeowners, and are constantly refining and fine-tuning how we serve them, including strategically making investments in order to adjust to their needs.

As homeowners continue to migrate toward digital channels, we continue to expand our offerings so that they might conduct business whenever and wherever they choose. One of the latest areas at Cenlar to expand into this digital space is our collections efforts.

Launched in April, our collections email campaign gives us another avenue to reach homeowners who are past due on their mortgage. It’s a simple reminder to homeowners to make their payment or to contact us if they need help. These emails do not replace our efforts via outbound calling or letters, but rather are a supplemental digital campaign layered in as part of a holistic strategy to reach homeowners who may be at-risk.

We determine who receives these reminder emails the same way we determine our outbound dialer campaigns. A homeowner could receive anywhere from two to four emails from us in a month, depending on a number of factors including loan type and determined risk of default.

This campaign gives us another tool to drive the success of our collections campaigns, as well as another way to attempt to connect as early as possible with homeowners who may need help with their loan. We think this is part of a holistic collections strategy, and as always, we are monitoring the effectiveness of all of our contact points.

An Update with Cenlar Leadership on September 21

Please save the date for our next quarterly call.

WHAT: Learn from Cenlar leadership about our areas of focus for the rest of 2023 and beyond.

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 at 3 p.m. ET

We will send you access information for the call closer to the date of the event.

Please note, this call is for current Cenlar clients only. Although you may forward this invite to interested parties within your organization, please do not forward dial-in details to other third parties. Any information shared on the call is subject to the confidentiality provisions of your respective subservicing agreement.

If you have any questions, please contact your client manager.

Tom Hutchison Was Born to Be In the Mortgage Business

You might say the mortgage industry is in Tom Hutchison’s blood.

With a grandfather who worked in the business and a father who started his own company, Hutchison’s family background clearly influenced his career path. But this third-generation mortgage professional mapped his own unique journey — one that eventually brought him to Cenlar four years ago.

As a VP and Executive Client Manager, Hutchison is responsible for overseeing client relationships, making sure issues are identified and remediated in a timely manner. He currently has two client managers reporting to him, who drive the client experience and serve as what he calls a “first line” to assist our clients. He supports their day-to-day efforts, serving as a point of escalation as needed.

Among Hutchison’s critical functions is communicating Cenlar’s value proposition to his clients, informing them of all the great new features their clients will experience as Cenlar makes enhancements to its technology, processes or procedures. He also hears directly from clients, who share feedback that he, in turn, can strategically present to Cenlar as a potential opportunity. As a sounding board who “hears both sides of the conversation,” Hutchison sees himself as a conduit between Cenlar and the client that helps build trust, understanding and partnership.

They’re values that come naturally to Hutchison. He joined the U.S. Navy right out of high school. Upon leaving the service, he spent the next six years as a Loan Servicing Manager at Chapel Mortgage before spending the next 25 years in a series of management roles at Fannie Mae, culminating in Director, Servicing Management.

At the same time Hutchison earned a hands-on education in the mortgage business by day, by night he was in a classroom, earning a bachelor’s degree at Eastern University and an MBA at Saint Joseph’s University’s Erivan K. Haub School of Business. While he learned the value of hard work and being competitive from his father — and credits those qualities as essential to his success — he knew that without academic credentials, he would be limited in where he could take his career.

Ultimately, Hutchison wanted that destination to be Cenlar, where applied just as he was completing his MBA. Why Cenlar? There was a personal angle — his father had done business with Larson Mortgage Company before it joined forces with Centennial Savings and Loan Association to become Cenlar. But Hutchison also knew Cenlar was the leading mortgage loan subservicing company, and it helped that the company was conveniently located to where he was living.

Above all, working for Cenlar would bring together the various strands of his experience to date, and allow him an opportunity for growth. Even with more than three decades of experience and two degrees under his belt, Hutchison laughs that “it wasn’t easy getting into Cenlar.”

Hutchison joined Cenlar in 2019 as Director, Transfer Operations and Integration, where he was responsible for integration of portfolio acquisitions, risk management and client relationships. In 2020, he moved into his current role under Matt Detwiler, and quickly had to adapt as the pandemic impacted the workplace. Very quickly.

“On Day One, Matt was showing me my new office. By Day Two, we had transitioned to a remote environment, and I was working from home.”

But interacting virtually with co-workers and clients proved no barrier for Hutchison, who was still able to put into practice what he had observed in his father’s professional interactions over the years — “being personable, engaging with people, being accountable, responsive, always listening and learning.”

Hutchison lives in South Jersey, where he and his wife keep their community caffeinated as owners of a coffee shop, Trouble Brewing. As a dad of two, step-dad of one and with two grandkids to keep up with, having one’s own coffee shop can come in handy. In his free time, Hutchison enjoys playing golf and traveling.

 

Labor Day Observance

Cenlar will be closed on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 in observance of Labor Day. Any files received on Monday, Sept. 4 will be processed the night of Tuesday, Sept. 5. Output will be available the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 6.