According to a complaint filed by Longbridge, its competitor is allegedly using a number of websites with fake reviews as a means to prop up its reverse mortgage business, equating to unfair business conduct.

The New Jersey-based reverse mortgage lender wants to put a stop to Mutual's alleged tactics, a suit filed in a California federal court on Sept. 27 said.

Specifically, Longbridge claims Mutual of Omaha uses misleading websites —ReviewCounsel.org, AdvisoryInstitute.org, and RFSQualify.com—to manipulate senior consumers into choosing its services or Retirement Funding Solutions.

The above-mentioned websites, which present themselves as unbiased review platforms, are actually run by Mutual and "inflate Mutual's ratings and misrepresent it and Retirement Funding Solutions (RFS) as separate entities, despite their shared ownership," the complaint said. Longbridge refers to a filing with the California Secretary of State, which shows that Review Counsel is owned and operated by Mutual.

Longbridge also claims the other websites mentioned are either directly or indirectly controlled by Mutual of Omaha and that the education articles on the Review Counsel website are authored by a director of marketing at Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, "further proving that Mutual is pulling the strings of the Review Counsel website."

"[Review Counsel] publishes false and misleading "ratings" of reverse mortgage providers that score Mutual of Omaha far higher than its competitors based on factual misrepresentations and highly skewed rating criteria," Longbridge purports in its suit. "In addition, the Review Counsel website presents seniors with a false choice between two winning alternatives in the rankings—namely, Mutual of Omaha and RFS (Retirement Funding Solutions) — making these companies appear to be competitors in the rankings (and the marketplace more generally), as opposed to what they really are: one and the same company."

Both Longbridge and Mutual of Omaha declined to comment on the pending litigation Monday. According to the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System, RFS is a trade name for Mutual of Omaha.

The filing argues that these deceptive advertising practices not only harm vulnerable seniors but also unfairly impacts competitors, such as Longbridge, who adhere to ethical advertising practices.

Mutual is accused of violating a number of state and federal statutes including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Federal Trade Commission guidance and the Lanham Act, which prohibits the use in commerce of any "false or misleading description of fact.

Longbridge is seeking injunctive relief under California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to stop Mutual from using the misleading websites.

Without such a motion, Mutual will "continue to target elderly consumers with the false, deceptive, and misleading advertising contained on these websites" and will further harm Longbridge's reputation and business," the legal filing states.

Through August in fiscal year 2024, Mutual of Omaha has 4,024 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage endorsements from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, putting it ahead of Finance of America at 4,002 and Longbridge at 2,004, according to Reverse Market Insight.

Mutual of Omaha entered the reverse mortgage business through the 2018 acquisition of Synergy One Lending. In 2020, Synergy One management repurchased the brand as well as the distributed retail forward production channel.

Concurrently, Mutual is also being asked to cough up $145,000 in sanctions by Waterstone Mortgage in a trade secrets case. 

Waterstone, in a motion filed Sept. 27 in a Florida federal court, claims Mutual has caused it to incur thousands in fees "by identifying 186 alleged trade secrets and then changing course and alleging entirely new trade secrets eight months after the close of discovery."