(August 14, 2000) Steven Connolly has spent five years as Controller in the insurance industry and over two years working in public accounting. He is currently director of business development for Vertical Lend, formerly MortgageAssociate, a company that helps insurance agents, accountants and financial planners expand their client services to offer personal loans as well.

	Introduction
In this edition we'll be discussing Home Loans and the Finance/Insurance Professional. Our guest is Mr. Steven Connolly, CPA and director of business development at Vertical Lend, formerly Mortgage Associate.

	Question 1
Maybe you could start off simply by addressing the current trend -- the blurring of the lines we're seeing across all sectors of both insurance and financial services.

	Question 2
What makes it possible -- or even necessary -- today for a life insurance agent or personal accountant, for example, to have the ability to offer home loans to their clients?

	Question 3
Have you seen any difficulties typically faced by insurance and financial professionals who want to diversify their services to include mortgage loan products?

	Question 4
If an insurance or finance professional wanted to begin offering home loans to their clients, what's the first step?

	Question 5
In addition to the initial loan approval process, what other professional benefits do Mortgage Associate members receive?

	Question 6
Does Mortgage Associate offer these services at no cost to the professional?

	Question 7
And what about profit? Is it really worth the professional time of the accountant or the personal financial planner to take the effort it requires to offer mortgage loan services?

	Question 8
How much longer will consumers still be demanding the services of professional mortgage lenders?

	Question 9
Could you close for us with a look at the future you see in store for lending programs that are executed by accountants, financial planners and insurance professionals?

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