The Wakefield Company, LLC

Terry Wakefield
Chief Executive Officer
Office - 262.375.8000, ext. 6640
Cell - 414.313.2803
Fax - 262.375.2835
900 Cheyenne Avenue
Suite 100
PO Box 210
Grafton, WI 53024


Case Histories

Processing and Infrastructure Reconfiguration
This client, a nationwide retail mortgage bank, has had some internal processing challenges. Their cost to produce loans is substantially above industry averages. Loan application to loan closing cycle times average 33 days. Loan throughput rates have historically been in the 50% range. The number of loans processed per full time processing employee has ranged between 9 and 12 per month.

We were retained to do an assessment of this client’s loan processing environment. The client’s stated objective was to reduce its loan production expenses by at least $1,000 per loan within twelve months. We visited this client’s two largest production facilities and conducted extensive interviews with production management and line personnel. We then shared our findings with the President and his direct reports. These findings shaped a three month strategic review which prioritized our findings in order of economic impact and ease of implementation.

Within eight weeks of implementing a pilot of the first phase of a multi-phase transformation, this client’s loan closing cycle time was reduced by more than 30%. Loan throughput increased to over 70%, and the productivity of processing personnel more than doubled to over 20 closed loans per month. The pilot is now being rolled-out to all of the client’s production facilities. Phase two of the transformation has commenced, and the client’s objective of reducing its loan production expenses by at least $1,000 per loan within twelve months will be achieved.

Outsourcing and Off-Shoring Solutions
One of our clients had an interest in expanding their business to include an end-to-end mortgage loan production capability. After a thorough review of the options to implement this strategy, we recommended that they contract with an existing outsource loan fulfillment provider.

Within eight months and with minimal upfront investment, this client successfully implemented a nationwide and highly variable cost mortgage loan fulfillment capability. This client has also decided to build a vendor management captive (VMC) which will enable it to exert direct control over the supply chain that delivers the raw materials – appraisals, title commitments, closing management, etc. - necessary to produce loans. This RESPA–compliant VMC will provide the client with an enduring and substantial revenue stream by enabling their VMC to capture title agency commissions and the spread between the retail and wholesale cost of other settlement services.

We are currently in negotiations with an Indian firm to establish a highly automated, off-shore residential mortgage fulfillment capability. Based on early projections, use of this capability will provide our clients with the lowest loan production costs in the residential mortgage industry.

Business Development and Market Positioning
This client, a mortgage technology provider, is in the enviable position of having the premier platform within its niche of the residential mortgage industry. This client’s capabilities and impact on a loan production environment are truly transforming, and its solution can be implemented quickly and with minimal cost.

This client retained us to assist with a broad business development initiative that includes: evaluation and selection of a public relations firm to clarify the client’s market position and expand industry awareness of its capabilities; advising on the content and format of sales and marketing presentations; and, making introductions to mortgage lenders that can benefit from this client’s capabilities. After the first twelve months of the relationship, this client’s market exposure has broadened and annual revenues have increased by several million dollars as a result of our performance.

Strategic Alliance Formation
It is not unusual for us to foster alliances among our existing client base. A number of these alliances have formed over the past twenty-four months. The most noteworthy involves a client that develops and markets point-of-sale (POS) decision technology and another that has developed the preeminent vendor management software platform in the industry. The alliance enables a lender to: fully automate the order of applicant-specific settlement services at the POS; provide the lender and its customer, at the POS, with a timetable specifying when settlement services will arrive in the lender’s production environment; and, electronically deliver settlement services to its loan production environment.

This alliance has the ability to substantially accelerate turn around time for settlement services. Accelerated delivery of settlement services lowers production expenses, increases capacity, and increases loan throughput. This alliance will also allow our clients to offer a “bundled package” of settlement services without experiencing the operational or economic risk inherent in dealing with third party settlement services providers.

Project Management
This client has historically operated a successful warehouse finance business. We helped this client devise a strategy for a web-based interface that would simplify the uploading of data from existing warehouse customers. We also suggested that this client expand its business by offering an end-to-end fulfillment capability for both new and existing warehouse customers. The online uploading capability and fulfillment service eliminate the client’s primary risk factors and accelerate the loan funding cycle which increases capacity and revenue.

Aside from providing strategic input, we managed the implementation of the client’s web-based functionality. This two phase project has been completed, and the client has rolled out its fulfillment capability to both new and existing customers. Once this fulfillment capability gains traction, this client will complete its transformation by introducing a conduit operation which will provide it with direct control of all mortgage origination, production, financing, and securitization activities.

Capital Formation
We have assisted two clients with capital formation initiatives. These clients were successful in raising over $20 million of capital within a twelve month period. Our efforts focused on: direct investment; advising clients on investment banking relationships; assisting investment bankers with investor presentations; and, serving on one of these client’s board of directors to provide a level of investor oversight. We are not a registered investment firm; however, we do have relationships with private equity investors that have an interest in pursuing opportunities within the residential finance industry.