Our History

The History of it all

Hi, I'm Rich Smith, and along with my business partner Tom Arrowsmith, we own RetiredMortgages. Since you're reading this, you're probably wondering how a couple of guys in their 30s ended uprunning a 45-year-old company focused on retirement mortgages. Well, grab a pew, pour a coffee (or something stronger) and let me tell you about how our families got tangled up in the mortgage business - and how Tom and I ended up turning this family legacy into something new.

The Timeline

1979-1997: The Problem That Started It All

You know how some of the best things in life aren't planned? That's pretty much how we got started. Back in 1979 - the same year Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" was topping the charts and Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female Prime Minister - my grandfather Dick Smith noticed something in our little town of Salmon Arm, BC. Getting a mortgage here was darn tricky. The big banks weren't interested in small-town mortgages, and interest rates were through the roof.
Dick wasn't exactly planning to start a mortgage company. He already had his hands full with several successful businesses, but he saw an opportunity to help people while making a stable return on investment. He started by lending his own savings, secured by mortgages, to locals who couldn't get financing from traditional banks.

Before long, word got around (as it always does in small towns), and his friend Denis Marshal wanted to get involved. That's how Tekamar Mortgages was born - a combination of their two companies, Tekarida Properties and Marshal Security. Over the years, Dick had dabbled in everything from bus companies to hotels, but he brought the same steady hand to every venture. He was always the careful one - the numbers guy who made sure everything added up.

The business grew steadily through the 1980s and early '90s, and we built our reputation the old-fashioned way - by keeping our promises and treating people right. It's worth noting that this was long before mortgage brokers were common in Canada. Looking back, Dick was pioneering something new, even if he didn't realize it at the time.

1997-2014: The Vet Who Became a Broker

In 1996, my father, Richard (That's Richard the 2nd if you're keeping track so far), did something that probably surprised a few people. After spending 7 years to get a doctorate in Veternarian Medicine, and nearly another decade working as a vet - treating everything from family pets to cattle across BC and Alberta - he decided he needed a change. He started brokering mortgages from his home office in the evenings while still practicing veterinary medicine. What started as a part-time venture quickly showed enough promise that by 1998, he'd made the decision to focus on mortgages full-time.

Over the next several years, he gradually bought out my grandfather's shares and transformed what was primarily a lending business into a full-service mortgage brokerage. The timing was perfect - more banks and lenders were starting to work with brokers, giving us more options to help our clients. Dad has this amazing ability to thrive in organized chaos - the business grew like wildfire under his watch, largely because people trusted him to find solutions that worked for them, not just for the banks.

The mortgage industry was changing too. By the early 2000s, mortgage brokers were becoming more mainstream, and we were perfectly positioned to ride that wave. We expanded beyond Salmon Arm, helping folks across British Columbia's and eventually western Canada. But no matter how much we grew, we kept that small-town approach - where your reputation is everything and a handshake still means something.

2014-2023: Never Say Never

Funny how life works out. My first real taste of the mortgage business came in 2014, when Dad asked me to help out for "just one summer" during a particularly busy period. At 21, I became the youngest person to write the broker's exam in British Columbia. Despite finding out I had a knack for it, I was dead set against following in the family footsteps. I remember telling everyone who'd listen that I definitely wouldn't become the third Richard Smith to broker mortgages.

While completing my economics degree at the University of Calgary, I made sure to go in a totally different direction than mortgages in a small town. So instead I moved overseas, first to Spain before moving to England to pursue a career in software development. Meanwhile, Tom Arrowsmith had joined the company under Richard, working alongside his mother Ester, who'd been with us since 2003. Despite Tom's business degree having a focus on marketing, he shared my grandfather's gift for finance and figured out pretty quickly that's where his real talents lay.

The software development experience was valuable - it taught me the importance of systems and efficiency in business. And I still love writing code. But after a particularly damp and bleak winter in England, I realized I missed more than just the mountains of British Columbia. I missed working with people, having real conversations, and making a tangible difference in their lives. When I called Tom from England about the possibility of buying into the business together, he said "Hell ya! When do you get here?". I'll forever be grateful for that.

Talk about perfect timing. Tom was already working on buying the company from my father, and our strengths couldn't have complemented each other better. While Tom had an incredible head for numbers and systems, I loved nothing more than sitting down with clients, hearing their stories, and finding ways to help. It was the perfect match - Tom keeping everything running smoothly while I focused on what I do best: connecting with people.

Dad was still very much in the picture during these years, even though he'd stepped back from brokering to focus on the lending side of things. He worked part-time, but his influence and mentorship were invaluable. He'd pop by the office, share his decades of wisdom, and help us navigate tricky situations. Meanwhile, Tom and I were busy modernizing everything - bringing new energy and ideas to a business that already had rock-solid foundations.

2023: The 'Aha' Moment

The wake-up call hit during those wild post-COVID years. We kept meeting retirees who owned beautiful homes worth a small fortune but were struggling to keep up with rising costs. Heck, when a single chicken breast was costing over five bucks at the grocery store, who could blame them? Their pensions and investment income just weren't keeping pace with inflation, and despite having hundreds of thousands in home equity, they couldn't qualify for traditional mortgages under the strict lending rules that came into effect in 2018.

For years, we'd offered reverse mortgages through CHIP, but with only one lender, we felt like we weren't really "brokering" anything - we were just passing along whatever terms they offered. When Equitable Bank joined the market in 2018, things got a bit more interesting. But it wasn't until Bloom Finance entered the scene in 2021 that everything clicked. Suddenly, we had real competition between lenders, which meant we could finally do what brokers are supposed to do: shop around and negotiate the best deals for our clients.

Here's the funny part - despite being mortgage brokers for years, we'd always been a bit hesitant about reverse mortgages ourselves. Like most Canadians, we'd heard the American horror stories and kept our distance. But something about having three competing lenders made us take a second look. Sticking with our principles, though, we couldn't confidently offer these mortgages to our clients until we understood exactly what we were dealing with. So we did what any good broker would do - we started digging.

What started as cautious research turned into a full-blown obsession. I found myself devouring everything I could find on reverse mortgages - books on the American market crashes, studies on the UK's success stories, deep dives into Canada's regulatory framework. The more I learned, the more excited I got. We hadn't just stumbled onto a decent product - we'd found something that could solve a major problem facing hundreds of thousands of Canadian retirees.

Here was a solution for all these folks we kept meeting - people with plenty of home equity but struggling to buy groceries. People whose pensions couldn't keep up with inflation. People who wanted to help their kids buy homes or just enjoy their retirement years without constant financial stress. Tom and I spent countless late evenings in the boardroom, running numbers and comparing products. One Friday night while discussing it yet again (this time, likely over a beer), it hit us - this wasn't just another product line. This was what we should be focused on doing, period.

When you find something that could help that many people in such a meaningful way, you don't just dip your toes in - you dive in headfirst. That's exactly what we decided to do. Over those beers in the boardroom, we made the call to launch a completely new company focused entirely on reverse mortgages. And just like that, RetiredMortgages was born.

Where We Are Now (And Why We're Excited)

These days, we run everything from our small-town BC office, helping clients across Canada access their home equity and enjoy their retirement years. We've managed to blend my grandfather's careful attention to detail, my father's passion for helping people, and our own fresh ideas into something that we think is pretty neat!

Focusing entirely on retirement mortgages wasn't a decision we made lightly - it grew from everything we'd learned over 45 years of helping Canadians with their mortgages. We saw a real need, knew we could help, and realized we could make retirement a whole lot better for a lot of people.

It's kind of amazing when you think about it - here we are, a company that started before the internet existed, now using technology to help retirees across Canada from our office in small-town BC. Through phone calls and this website, we can give the same personal attention to someone in Saskatoon or Halifax that we've always given to our neighbors here in Salmon Arm. Times change, but good service never goes out of style.

Like one of those Jimmy Buffett songs, we've had our 'Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,' but nothing about our commitment to doing right by people has changed.

That's what RetiredMortgages is all about - three generations of mortgage expertise and small-town values, powered by modern technology. Not exactly the future my grandfather imagined back in 1979, but exactly the kind of business he and my dad taught us to build - one that puts people first and never stops finding better ways to help them.

That's our story. Not exactly your typical mortgage company history, but then again, we've never been your typical mortgage company. We're carrying on a legacy of trust that started back in 1979, helping a new generation of Canadians make the most of their retirement years.