00:00My name is Dan Bailey. I am Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Enterprise Solutions for WFG.
00:17We're certainly, as an industry, presented with a lot of technology that can help us do things
00:22maybe a little bit faster or a little bit quicker, but it doesn't always lead to a better customer
00:27experience. So as fantastic as technology has been, we went from fax machines, written, you know,
00:34title searches and that kind of thing to now everything is integrated. And that's certainly
00:38helped us connect better with our customers to help that transaction move faster in a more connected
00:44way, right? So it's faster decisions. And it really helps us provide that customer experience.
00:51That's better certainly than waiting around for someone to call you and say, hey, there's an issue
00:55with your title or we can't get your closing taken care of. However, you know, there are still some
01:00borrowers that like that. So technology has certainly helped us reduce friction and increase throughput
01:04in the overall mortgage loan construction process, if you will. But I think it's very important for us
01:11to always focus on our customers, their borrowers, buyers, sellers of real estate to make sure they're
01:17getting the service that they want. And sometimes it still means that they want a written piece of
01:20communication or conversation via telephone. It's the biggest disruptor that we've seen from a
01:32technology standpoint in years, right? We've had blockchain and, you know, machine learning and
01:38bots and all this other stuff over the years. But AI has truly changed the conversation on what you
01:43could do, you know, and I'm absolutely fascinated by it. So, you know, it certainly helps us deliver
01:49more measurable outcomes. It helps us eliminate, again, as I mentioned in my previous answer,
01:54you know, you want to have as much throughput as you can in your operations process, right? You want
02:00to eliminate that waste so orders can just flow through naturally. And AI really helps that a lot,
02:06right? So we're seeing things that are as simple as helping us open orders faster, you know, helping us
02:11digest loan closing packages a little bit more quickly. You know, it certainly helps us adjust our
02:16throughput, but then it also helps us position our employees to handle questions that come from
02:23whomever they're interacting with, whether it's a loan officer, a buyer, a borrower, whomever,
02:27and puts them into position to deal with those questions a little bit more quickly and much more
02:31efficiently. AI helps you digest information and interpret information, and it puts you in a position
02:37that you can solve problems faster. So AI has certainly done that for us, all the way from,
02:44as I mentioned, order entry to the way that we're providing our title search now. And I think
02:49ultimately, that's going to lead to a much more predictable, consistent process that we don't
02:54have to suffer through the challenges of the undulating market, right? We get really busy,
02:59we got to hire 500 people, then it slows down a little bit, and then you kind of contract.
03:04I think AI is going to really help us level set that workflow in that environment so that it's a
03:08more consistent process overall. The really excited thing that we've been focused on is,
03:23you know, as an enterprise solutions group, we offer multiple products and services to
03:27lenders originating mortgage loans, right? Whether it's home equity, refinance transactions,
03:31and that spans from everything from marketing and lead generation services through our Vali platform,
03:39appraisal valuation services through value trust, settlement title and closing through our lender
03:44services program, all the way through default services, right? So AI and the technology allows
03:51us to really provide a single point of entry into that ecosystem. You know, and I think for a long
03:57time
03:58in this industry, a lot of the customers and clients and prospects that we have, think about
04:03everything in kind of a silo, right? You're my valuation company, I'm going to go for you for this,
04:09and then you're my marketing company, I go, well, now we want to bring that all together to make it
04:13much more, much easier. So instead of having to manage six different relationships, six different
04:18ecosystems, six different integrations, you know, have one, right? And that provides a much more
04:23consistent experience for a borrower or a buyer in that transaction, your loan officer, your processor,
04:29it's much more predictable. And it's going to really allow us to eliminate that natural friction that
04:34happens when you're juggling between these multiple different providers. But now you can just use one
04:39that can help you with all those services. And, you know, our strategy is not only can we help with
04:45those, but we can help you improve your conversion rate, improve your satisfaction scores,
04:50and ultimately help you make more money, right? That's what it's all about.
05:01Value Trust is our AMC, or National Provider of Valuation Appraisal Services. And UAD 3.6 is the
05:08really the most significant change that we've had in the appraisal world for quite a period of time,
05:13right? So gone are the days of all the various forms that we had, the 1004, the 2055, the 1004,
05:24the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055, the 2055. And
05:24now you've got a dynamic form of dynamic appraisal report. So it does mark a big shift, not only for
05:30us as a, as an AMC, but then also for our appraisers and for lenders, right? The due date is
05:3711 to 26,
05:39right? So we're right around the corner. And as far as I know, that's not going to change,
05:42right? So we've made sure that our Value Trust platform that integrates with our lenders has the
05:49capability to accept UAD 3.6 orders, manage those orders and deliver those orders as necessary and
05:56that information is necessary. So our platform is ready. Our appraisers are ready. We spent a lot
06:01of time training our appraisers, making sure they're prepared for the switch and our employees
06:06are ready, right? So a lot of training has gotten into making sure our employees understand why these
06:10things are different, what they need to be prepared for. They're ready. And frankly,
06:14and to be honest with you, we're already processing UAD 3.6 orders. So we're ready. So if anybody listens
06:20to this and says, see, I wonder who to go to, we're ready. We can take those orders today and
06:24help you
06:24out. I think that that's another big shift, right? So a lot of our lender customers use Encompass as their
06:37loan operating system. And there's been new language, if you will, for that is required to
06:45integrate with Encompass to continue to process those orders. My understanding is that date a little
06:50bit further out, right? December 31st, 2026 is when the cutoff is. And, you know, I've seen this a lot
06:58of times where it seems like maybe these things will get pushed off and they'll get delayed and there'll be
07:02three months or four months. But, you know, for both UAD 3.6 and the conversion to EPC, it doesn't
07:09seem like those are going to get changed. So we've wanted to make sure since last year that we're
07:15prepared, right? So we've gone through our integration efforts. We've updated all the language,
07:19right? So we're on the latest EPC Connect. And we've been working with our lenders to make sure that
07:24we go through any testing protocols that are necessary to make sure that they're ready once that transition
07:30takes place. So really, that's my message is that, hey, on both of these items, we're ready. We're ready
07:35to take orders. We've been prepared. We could test. So, and I think the other is a warning, too, that
07:40it doesn't
07:41seem like these are going to get delayed or extended. So waiting until the last minute to get them done
07:45could be very challenging.
07:55So as I mentioned a little bit earlier, right? That single entry point to our ecosystem of the
08:02products and services we offer, I think, is a differentiator. So you get lead generation,
08:07marketing services, title settlement valuation, you know, all the stuff that you need really to
08:12originate a loan, convert that loan to a closing, and then retain that loan. We're very excited about
08:18some of the tools that we've been developing, AI tools that help us enhance our overall service.
08:24I don't know if I mentioned it before, but our focus with AI and with technology in general is to
08:29better enable our employees to give better service to our customers. Never a replacement. You're not
08:34going to get an AI agent that you're going to chat with that's eventually going to lead to somebody that
08:38you can actually have a conversation with. We've all been part of that already, right? It gets kind of
08:41frustrating. We want to empower employees through the use of technology and their AI agents to help
08:46them give better service to our customers. That's what we're focused on. And I think we have really
08:50interesting tools that we've been developing that can help lenders, especially in an environment like
08:54today, where you might have a lot of borrowers that are on the fence, right? Drive those leads,
08:59reinvigorate those leads, and drive them through an ecosystem that can close that transaction very
09:03quickly and make it very simple to get your appraisal information, your title information, your closing
09:08information, and provide a consistent level of service to that consumer at a price that's very
09:13competitive. I think it is really our overall strategy and what we've been focusing on. Our goal
09:19is to move every loan forward throughout the transaction. And then once it's completed, we want
09:23to make sure we have a mechanism that if that loan reinvigorates itself or someone wants to go through
09:28refinance or home equity transaction in the future, we have tools that can help with that
09:33to make sure that that lender captures that borrower for life.
