Michael VanErdewyk, ReliaMax Founder and CEO, Online Marketplace Private Loans Insurtech Meets Fintech Show 060
Michael VanErdewyk is the Founder and CEO of Reliamax. HEMAR was started in 1986 as a private student loan insurance company. In 1996 Sallie Mae purchased HEMAR but HEMAR could only insure loans originated by Sallie. Mike started a workers compensation insurance company and worker compensation GMA in Sioux Falls, SD. Mike sold both companies in 2006 because he purchased HEMAR from Sallie Mae in 2006. Hemar was also co-founded by Reliamax employee Kevin Mullin. The company went from an insurance company insuring private student loans to an online marketplace known as ReliaMax today. Reliamax has both a lender B2B and consumer FUTR presence online. The Company maintains a social media and marketing platform. They are also involved on the lending side of the business on student loan lending platforms.
What you’ll learn about here is the high cost of student higher education year over year is more than $400 billion and it continues to increase with a fourth of students and their families funding their education from free grants and scholarships and quarter from federal student loans the other 200 billion is from family contributions which typically are funded from credit cards, personal loans retirement assets sometimes coming with penalty withdrawals, home equity loans todays entrepreneur and industry leader saw an idea, saw a great business and took action and we are going to ask him how he began executing on his goals and plans to build a solution to fill the necessary gap for students and families in this education loan niche an asset class called private student loans where fintech and insurtech come together.
What is so special about what today’s guest is doing well he sits in a unique spot where now he actually helps both lenders and students. We cover many resources in the show like Student Loan Hero, Lending Tree and a company that we interviewed earlier Credible.
Everyone now is attempting to get online within the student loan marketplace just see Goldman Sachs with their branding of Marcus.
Before starting up Reliamax Mike worked for Prudential Insurance Company and discussed competitor Nationwide Insurance Company.
We also discussed technology and Sourabh Ahuja the ReliaMax Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director, Digital Transformation.
More and more employers are creating benefits around student loans. For example, Gradifi is an employer-student loan assistance company that helps in this new marketplace. We also discussed technology being embraced by the young students called Glu Mobile.
tags: private student loans, lending, insurtech, fintech, refinance, consolidation loan
Michael VanErdewyk, CEO and Chairman of ReliaMax, discusses the intersection of Fintech and Insurtech on Mitchell Chadrow’s Listen Up Show Podcast
ReliaMax CEO and Chairman, Michael VanErdewyk, recently appeared on Mitchell Chadrow’s Listen Up Podcast Show to discuss the rapid growth of the FinTech industry and how ReliaMax entered the Private Student Lending (PSL) space.
The cost of higher education in the U.S. has skyrocketed, surpassing $400 billion annually. As college tuition continues to increase, students and their families are left footing the $200 billion not covered by public funding sources, such as Federal Student Loans, Grants, and Scholarships.
All too often, families turn to financial solutions that cost significantly more than Private Student Loans. Paying for college with home equity or personal loans, 401k’s, and credit cards, means wasting money on exorbitant interest rates, tax penalties, and fees not typically associated with PSLs.
ReliaMax is focused on providing innovative solutions to students and lenders that bridge the $200 billion gap. By leveraging more than 30 years’ worth of historical PSL data acquired in the 2006 purchase of HEMAR from Sallie Mae, ReliaMax has developed underwriting, analytics, pricing, and default prevention strategies that drive revenue both internally and for clients.
As the first true Marketplace Platform offering borrower acquisition, origination, servicing, insurance*, and liquidity, ReliaMax continues to engage students and lenders with products and services developed for the next generation of borrowers. From building the first-of-its-kind mobile servicing app that enables borrowers to make loan payments and manage their PSL accounts directly from their mobile device, to being the only company in the world to insure Private Student Loans, ReliaMax remains a leading innovator in the FinTech and InsurTech spaces.
