I was in the stands for Michigan’s season opener against Western Michigan, and for a while, I wasn’t sure what I was watching. It was a new season, a new era under Kyle Whittingham, and a game that turned into a whole lot more of a nail-biter than most people probably expected. But as I watched it unfold, I kept thinking about something that has nothing to do with football: you can prepare all you want, but eventually you have to be ready to execute. And unless you’re Michigan football, you might not get an extra chance to perform if you mess it up the first time.
That got me thinking about succession planning. You can have the right people identified, the strategy mapped out, and the big decisions made. But when the moment actually arrives, is the organization ready to execute, or is it still dependent on one person, one decision, or one piece of the plan that hasn’t been tested?
That’s the question Principal Advisor Amanda Gibson explores in this month’s InFocus article, “The Permit Problem: What Building a House Is Teaching Me About Succession Planning.” Her experience building a home becomes an unexpected lesson in why a succession plan isn’t really a plan until you’ve stress-tested the dependencies underneath it. Amanda looks beyond simply naming a successor to the things that actually determine whether a company is ready for transition — leadership bench strength, financial flexibility, developing successors through real responsibility, and keeping multiple paths open.
There’s a similar theme in Mike Seminari’s latest CX Tip, “Turning Borrower Referral ‘Likelihood’ into Real Referrals.” Mike digs into MortgageCX data showing that borrowers saying they’re likely to recommend you doesn’t necessarily translate into actual referral business. The opportunity is in understanding what moves a borrower from saying they would recommend you to actually making the referral — and then putting those insights to work.
Both pieces get at a theme I think is particularly important right now: it’s not enough to have a plan or identify an opportunity. You have to build the organization and the relationships to capitalize on it when the time comes. After all, unlike Michigan football, you may not get an extra chance (or second on the clock!) to be successful.
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Ask owners if they have a succession plan and most will say yes. Ask them to explain how the company runs without them, and the answer can get a bit shaky. It’s reasonable that people don’t think a lot about true business succession plans and exit strategies. If you have hesitated to formally plan for the “what if and when” scenario, you are not alone. But it may not be the best strategy for you, your family, or your business.
I’ve been thinking about something we’re seeing in STRATMOR’s MortgageCX data. We have lenders whose referral rates are improving dramatically even when their overall customer sentiment isn’t changing much at all. So perhaps we’ve been skipping over an important question. Knowing that someone would recommend you to others is useful. But what actually causes them to do it?
The 2026 STRATMOR Technology Insight® Study – Lender Intelligence survey is now open, and we’re asking lenders to share their perspective. Your input will help STRATMOR provide a current, data-driven look at the technologies lenders are using and how those solutions are performing.
Origination costs are at an all-time high. Given that sales costs will continue to be the largest component of retail origination costs, what can be done to manage this beast?
Understanding the key characteristics of the Expense Management Branch (EMB) and comparing the key performance metrics between it and the corporate branch model is essential to identifying which is best for your organization.
Secret shopping is the best way for lenders to remove the disconnection between perception and reality and pave the way for meaningful improvements in customer experience.
Choosing a subservicer is not simply selecting a vendor or outsourcing a function. It is choosing a partner that represents your organization to borrowers every day, often during interactions you’ll never witness firsthand. That relationship must hold up through regulatory scrutiny, operational complexity, changing market conditions, and thousands of borrower interactions.
Subservicing is now a mainstream operating model. The real question now is: how do you choose the right partner and ensure that partnership creates value rather than risk?
Yes, this article mentions AI. Before you scroll past it, stick with me. Because what the 2025 STRATMOR Technology Insight® Study (TIS) Digital Innovations results actually show is not just more AI hype. They show where AI adoption is accelerating and where AI is starting to matter most: in where lenders are deploying technology. And there’s a real shift that turns out to be pretty interesting.
Let’s start with a reality check. We all know that AI adoption is no longer a future-state conversation for the mortgage industry — it is happening right now, across every generation of borrower, every tier of competitor, and every corner of our business operations. The question lenders and technology vendors need to answer now is not whether to embrace AI, but how to do it in a way that amplifies what makes mortgage professionals irreplaceable: the human connection.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or needs we might be able to help with.
