July 31, 2023
While many financial institutions have embraced conservatism in light of current market challenges, Security National Life Insurance Company has doubled down innovation and growth, with the earnings to prove it. The company, which was founded in 1965, has a longstanding and impressive track record of prolific growth – a likely side effect of consistent evolution of its three main business segments: life insurance, funeral service, and mortgage loans.
In their 2022 annual report, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Scott Quist states, “to be sure, growth in this environment is expensive, but is nevertheless the goal.” A goal that has permeated all levels of the organization, and in the case of their Commercial Lending group, one that drove their decision to partner up with CRE FinTech Blooma at the tail end of 2022. After a chance encounter at a trade show earlier in the year, longtime Security National alum, Brian Nelsen, was introduced to their CRE automation solution by Blooma’s VP of Sales, Stuart Carrington. Brian recalls their meeting, “When I first learned about [Blooma], it sounded too good to be true. A platform that brings it all together and makes everything feel seamless was unheard of.”Nelsen, who got his start at Security National nearly a decade ago, has experience that spans the gamut of real estate. A ‘do it all’ attitude that has clearly bled into his current role overseeing CRE Lending for the company, “We have an incredible team that really does it all. From origination, to closing and servicing, to payoffs. We don’t outsource. We’re all doers.” Unfortunately, like many others, the Commercial Lending Group at Security National was feeling the strain of challenges brought on by a down market and an age-old process that was testing the limits of this team of seven.
It’s no secret that commercial real estate loans require an incredible amount of work and diligence to push through to the finish line, a process that Brian Nelsen described succinctly as “overwhelming” for any team. Between the manual work of data aggregation and entry, and moving deals through the approval process, the Commercial Lending Group was looking for a way to optimize their output without needing to add headcount. Choosing Blooma to help solve this was a natural fit and an easy choice. The digital solution offers an enhanced banking experience and aligns with Security National’s goal of innovating through technology.
The adoption of Blooma’s CRE automation software fits in with a larger process improvement initiative that is helping the company deliver a simplified – and faster – client experience. Specifically, the collaboration with Blooma simplifies processes, improves operational infrastructure, and allows Security National to:
- Evaluate CRE loans against any combination of 1,000+ configurable parameters
- Quickly parse offering memoranda for key deal information
- Analyze and automatically classify borrower and/or guarantor financials
- And normalize multiple market data sources through an intelligent data scoring model
Within a few months of partnering with Blooma, the team at Security National had onboarded and fully adopted the solution as part of their day-to-day lending activities – a task that did not come without its challenges, according to Brian Nelsen. “It was not a light switch, on and off. It took time for us to adjust to a new process and to consider the optimal way to leverage the technology.” A struggle that is undoubtedly a key inhibitor to technology adoption in the banking industry at large, often facing leaders with the dilemma of determining if the tech is more trouble than it’s worth. Nelsen credits the client experience team at Blooma for their support.
The relationship goes beyond simple training, however, encouraging a continuous dialogue to tease out additional ways to optimize the entire lending process. Security National’s account manager at Blooma, Michael Castelli, works alongside Brian and his team to ensure things are running smoothly — even beyond their use of the platform, “I can go to Michael with any question about underwriting, and because he knows our business so well, he comes back with suggestions that are in line with our business. He knows the way we look at deals. It’s refreshing that it’s not always about the product.”
To date, the team is realizing tremendous value from the partnership. Their use of the platform to accelerate loan approvals has resulted in a 72% decrease in time spent on manual data entry and a 50% direct time savings. Workflow improvements from leveraging the Origination Intelligence capabilities in the platform have allowed for increased focus on underwriting and improved quality of deal packages. Moving forward the team plans to expand their use to capitalize on Blooma’s deal and portfolio monitoring tools for real time surveillance – a move that is sure to create even more efficiency gains.
“It’s really nice to have a system that we feel proud about using,” says Nelsen. While the nation’s trust in banking as a whole has hiccupped and faltered, Security National’s Commercial Lending Group is proactively shifting strategy to meet the needs of its community. “We’re still lending aggressively, but we’re putting a finer point on it than we were before and really focusing on the data. We want to make the best loans to put our borrowers in good situations.” Technology investments like Blooma are no doubt a critical part of that formula, but the company’s ethos of optimism and customer-first culture is the tried-and-true method that has firmly positioned Security National in a league of its own.