United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) and Rocket Mortgage tend to go head-to-head in categories like originations and tech, so it makes sense that each of the top dogs in wholesale and retail lending claimed a spot on this year's Forbes 400 List, which ranks the country's 400 richest people.
Dan Gilbert, who co-founded Rock Financial (now Rocket Mortgage) in 1985 with Ron Berman, Lindsey Gross, and his younger brother Gary Gilbert when he was just 22 years old, claimed spot 27 on the list. Today, Rocket Companies, the parent company to Rocket Mortgage, is the largest retail mortgage lender in the U.S.
Gilbert's clever ideas starting with "Mortgage in a Box" in 1996, and then seizing the opportunity to go digital in 1998, during the dot com boom, have propelled the company to extraordinary heights.
Throughout the years, Gilbert has remained Chairman of Rocket's Board; he also owns the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and is the third richest sports team owner, per the Forbes list. Additionally, as of October 11, Gilbert was named the richest resident of Michigan with $30.2 billion in real-time net worth.
Following Gilbert is Rocket's fierce competitor, UWM Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia, who ranked number 65 on Forbes' list with an estimated $10.7 billion in real-time net worth, as of October 11. He's also the second-richest Michigander, behind Gilbert.
Ishbia became CEO in 2013 and owns a 71% stake in UWM. The company surpassed Rocket as the top U.S. mortgage lender in November 2022 and has continued to out-originate its rival ever since.
In 2023, Ishbia and his co-billionaire brother, Justin Ishbia, bought a majority stake in the NBA's Phoenix Suns in a deal that valued the team at a record $4 billion. At age 44, Ishbia is number 13 on Forbes' Richest U.S. Sports Team Owners list.
Neither UWM nor Rocket's spokespeople shared a comment at the time of publication.
