Barton Johnson
Bart Johnson has enjoyed a 50+ year career as an ‘intrepreneur’ driving ventures (startups, builds, turnarounds) to create earnings and market value for a series of mega-mortgage companies (Manufacturers Hanover, Mellon Bank, GE Capital, Lehman Brothers) in leadership positions across the full spectrum of the mortgage business. Originally a Big 8 CPA, he ran staff functions (CFO, Strategic Planning, Risk Management, Business Engineering, Total Quality) before gravitating to line positions (National Production Manager, Securities Operations, Servicing, Off-Shoring, Settlement Services) that resulted in executive responsibilities (CEO, President, COO) with full P&L responsibility and authority. He has served as a Board member for several companies, and has deal experience with (buy/sell) M&A transactions totaling nearly $6 billion. Bart is a balanced business executive, an innovative thought leader and transformational change agent with a strategic, futuristic vision… and a team builder and business operator with the appetite for relentless execution.
Bart previously served as President of Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation (a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers then IndyMac), at the time the largest reverse mortgage company in the world, unrivaled in scale and business results in the industry’s history. During his 5-year leadership tenure (2003-2007) the Company originated >170,000 reverse mortgages and experienced 7X growth in unit volume (7,000 loans to 49,000 per year) and 12X growth in dollar volume ($415.7 million to $5.0 billion per year) in achieving a 64% market share. The Company converted a net loss to a $52+ million profit and increased its market valuation by $800 million. Bart assumed a critical reverse mortgage industry leadership role and served as Chairman (2007-2009) of the industry trade group in Washington, D.C. (NRMLA-National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association), and he remains involved with that group today.
Bart is now an ‘entrepreneur’ as Founder/Chairman/CEO of HomeInTrust, an innovative and transformative alternative-asset (equity-based, not a loan) home equity release product. Designed around the age-old concept of ‘split interests’, it provides significant differentiating advantages in terms of structure, business flows, features, and numbers versus reverse mortgages and all other home equity extraction techniques. It is better for homeowners (no compound interest with growing loan balances, no default/foreclosure risk, more flexible), and for asset buyers (higher yields, huge cushion against risk of decline in home values, no prepayment risk, product is an inflation hedge as it is positively correlated with HPA). The HomeInTrust business can and will disrupt the industry, helping aging Americans redefine retirement and fund longevity while profoundly impacting the huge societal issue of an aging population. HomeInTrust is a start-up raising capital for its business launch, but can be brought to market very quickly based upon long years of industry experience, leadership, and a track record of executing/monetizing for earnings and market value.