Figure Technologies, Inc. Expands Leadership Team as It Builds Out Financial Empowerment and Wealth Offerings
Figure Hires Former Fidelity Executive John Sweeney as Head of Wealth and Asset Management
Mar 19, 2019, 09:05 ET
SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure™), a leading fintech company in both the home equity and blockchain space, announces that John Sweeney has joined the company as the head of Wealth and Asset Management, along with Dr. Michael Dooley, who joined as chief economist. These hires reflect Figure's commitment to empowering consumers and building out products to improve their financial well-being.
"John's wealth of experience in asset management, retirement planning and personal finance will fuel our work to provide simple, transparent and smart solutions to empower homeowners. His expertise working with asset managers, broker dealers and registered investment advisors will allow Figure to work hand in hand with financial advisors to deliver innovative solutions that solve real challenges," said Mike Cagney, co-founder and CEO at Figure. "Figure Home Lease Back is a great example of how we can work together to help retirees and their advisors enhance income, simplify life and improve retirement. It can also open up new opportunities for homeowners who want to lock in gains in their home prices while building flexibility in their lives."
Among his roles at Fidelity, John was executive vice president of Retirement and Investing Strategies, where he was sought out as an expert on retirement, investments and the markets and testified before the Senate Finance Committee on America's retirement preparedness. John was also the co-founder and managing partner of Momentum Capital Partners and served as the chairman of the board of governors of the Money Management Institute, the trade organization serving asset managers, investment advisors and broker dealers.
Dr. Dooley joins Figure as chief economist and is professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, he served the National Bureau of Economic Research, the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System and the International Monetary Fund. His published research covers a wide range of issues in macroeconomics, including work on financial crises and the liberalization of financial markets.
Empowering homeowners to improve their financial well-being.
Figure is continuing to build on the momentum from its flagship product, Figure Home Equity Line (formerly named Figure Home Equity Plus), which is a fixed-rate line of credit that provides approval in as little as five minutes and funding in five days, all online. It combines the best characteristics of a traditional home equity loan and a HELOC. It allows consumers to borrow against the equity in their homes without the paperwork-intensive, 45-day process traditional lenders require. Since September 2018, Figure has funded more than 1,500 HELOCs for members across 37 states.
Figure built and deployed Provenance™, a distributed stakeholder blockchain, in 2018. The company leverages the security, efficiencies and cost advantage of blockchain for loan origination, financing and sales and has a diverse set of funds, banks and dealers active on Provenance today. While Figure was the first loan originator on Provenance, several other originators plan to use the platform by mid-2019. Additional use cases, such as investment funds on chain, are also planned for this year.
The team at Figure believes that many Americans will face challenges funding their retirements. Many homeowners may be able to access the equity in their homes to fund the shortfall in retirement income. To meet this need, the company introduced Figure Home Lease Back (formerly named Figure Home Advantage), a more transparent and straightforward alternative to reverse mortgages. Figure Home Lease Back members can sell their homes to Figure, get cash up front and stay in place as renters for as long as they wish. Figure covers all expenses, including property taxes, upkeep and insurance. Figure Home Lease Back is being rolled out across Texas, Illinois and Nevada now, with plans for a national rollout midyear. As with Figure Home Equity Line, members will benefit from the speed and efficiency of the Provenance blockchain.
"Figure's transformative technology and innovative products will make it significantly easier for financial advisors and our members to incorporate home equity into their retirement plans," Sweeney said. "I'm excited to be part of an organization working to educate and empower people to improve their financial lives, whether increasing the success of their longer-term retirement plans or enabling them to achieve shorter-term goals like paying off their debt more quickly or funding a major renovation."
On March 21, Figure will celebrate the launch of its Facebook Community with its inaugural Facebook Live event at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT hosted by John Sweeney. Free educational tools and resources are available at https://blog.figure.com/, including the monthly outlook by Chief Economist Dr. Dooley.
About Figure: Figure Technologies, Inc. creates innovative consumer financial solutions for home improvement, debt consolidation and retirement while providing its members with financial education and financial empowerment. Its mission is to build and promote innovative financial products on blockchain that benefit consumers and eliminate rent-seeking, illiquidity and other inefficiencies present in current financial markets. The company's flagship product, the Figure Home Equity Line, uses Provenance, the blockchain protocol Figure created. Based in San Francisco, Figure was co-founded by Mike Cagney, former co-founder and CEO of SoFi, along with Alana Ackerson, Cynthia Chen, June Ou and Sara Priola. Figure has more than 100 employees in offices in California, Nevada and Montana. Figure has raised over $120 million since its founding in January 2018.
For more information about Figure and its offerings, visit Figure.com and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Figure/.
SOURCE Figure Technologies, Inc.