Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF) has announced the appointment of seasoned retirement and financial planning expert Tom Dickson as national leader of its Financial Advisor Channel. Dickson, who has been educating financial advisors on reverse mortgages for almost a decade, will be responsible for managing RMF’s “Retirement Experts Network,” an online educational platform designed to help financial 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 David Peskin, president of RMF. “Tom’s work with Harold Evensky and John Salter, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and his educational Webinars have been instrumental in reshaping the industry’s relationship with financial advisors. 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.”
In 2008, Dickson launched a financial experts network platform as a way to build business partnerships between financial advisors and product sponsors by making subject-matter experts from academic and professional circles available to educate professionals and consumers on complex and evolving topics. That platform regularly attracted more than 1,500 unique visitors per month on average. 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.
In addition to hosting a variety of professional development presentations by speakers who are experts in their respective fields, RetirementExpertsNetwork.com will offer members free access to an array of scholarly and topical resources on important financial subjects including Social Security, reverse mortgages, student financial aid and college planning, Medicare, divorce planning and more. Most webinars will typically offer continuing education (CE) credits to advisors who hold the CFP designation.
“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,” said Dickson. “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.”
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—conducted by Harold Evensky, John Salter and Shaun C. Pfeiffer, which evaluated the use of a reverse mortgage. While at MetLife Bank, 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 more than 120,000 registered users. During his career, he 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.
