Wharton Professors Join RHReward.com as Academic Advisors on Consumer Incentives to Help Responsible Homeowners Deal With Strategic Default and Negative Equity


RUMSON, NJ--(Marketwire - April 29, 2010) -  RHReward.com today announced that Susan M. Wachter and Alex Edmans, two real estate and finance professors at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, have joined its team as academic advisors on helping responsible homeowners deal with questions about strategic default and negative equity.

Dr. Wachter is Professor of Real Estate and Finance at Wharton, where she holds the Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management Chair. Dr. Wachter's research has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, The Financial Times and The New York Times, and she has been interviewed by CNBC, Marketplace, MSNBC, ESPN, Fox and the BBC. She received the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. She serves on the Board of Editors, Journal of Housing Economics, Board of Editors, Housing Policy Debate, Board of Editors, Journal of Real Estate and Finance, Board of Editors, Journal of Real Estate Research, and is a Homer Hoyt Institute Faculty Fellow. Dr. Wachter previously served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research (PD&R) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed position, from 1998 to 2001.

Dr. Edmans is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Wharton. His main research focus is incentives and behavioral finance. His PhD thesis on behavioral finance was a finalist for the Smith-Breeden Prize for best paper in the Journal of Finance, and he has won six best paper awards and eight teaching awards. His research has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Financial Times and The New York Times, and he has appeared on CNBC, ESPN, Fox and the BBC. He has presented his research to Goldman Sachs, UBS, McKinsey and Rockefeller, and advised the Treasury on executive compensation and corporate governance. Dr. Edmans earned a BA from Oxford and a PhD from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar. He previously worked at Morgan Stanley in sales and trading (New York) and investment banking (London).

"Susan and Alex bring deep expertise in real estate, finance and behavioral economics to RHReward.com's team," said Jason MacRae, Executive Vice President of Loan Value Group, which developed the program. "Millions of responsible homeowners across the country find themselves dealing with questions of negative equity and underwater mortgages they could not have anticipated when they bought their homes. While the larger economic problems that caused this situation are beyond their control, we realize that most homeowners would prefer to stabilize their own balance sheets and retain their homes. For many, RHReward.com can help."

About RHReward.com
The Responsible Homeowner Reward is a unique program which aims to give responsible homeowners an alternative to strategic default. By providing a cash reward for timely mortgage payments, the RH Reward gives back to homeowners who are working to live up to their mortgage obligations. RHReward.com is an operating unit of Loan Value Group LLC. For more information, go to RHReward.com.

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