LVUC2023: Key Takeaways From Our 5th Conference

The 2023 Loan Vision User Conference saw our biggest turn out yet, with about 150 attendees in Denver. This year’s conference saw a number of major achievements for Loan Vision: the largest crowd, a new CEO, and a new tool for customers: Loan Vision Predictive Analytics & Modeling Tool (LV-PAM) – a multisource tool powered by Coheus that culminates data across the entire loan origination process, giving deeper analytics and reporting to empower your business to operate more efficiently and profitably.

With the new branding, a new website, and more, conference #5 for Loan Vision saw a shift and gave attendees a look into what’s coming from the company. Whether you attended the conference or couldn’t make it this year, here are some takeaways from LVUC2023!

Between the Keynote from Paul J. Loftus, Loan Vision’s CEO, and the Executive Track, the theme heard ‘round the conference was the down economic times the mortgage industry is currently facing and what you can do to survive the current climate.  

A couple of notable sessions from the Executive Track –

Jim Deitch’s “Four Things You Must Do Now to Reach and Sustain Higher Profitability” discussed how lenders are searching for the keys to profitability. Jim started with explaining how current volume is down 65%, but employee productivity hasn’t increased and costs haven’t fallen nearly enough. Jim’s session focused on four key areas:

• Embrace a Sustainable Business Model.  This Model means Costs and Desired Profit must fit in “Available Revenue”.  Move to your breakeven point and through it to Profit with this fundamental truth. Most C Level leaders and owners do not fully appreciate the simplicity and power of this truth.
• Stop treating loan fallout as a “cost of doing business” and view fallout as potential lost revenue opportunity.  So much time and money are wasted on closeable loans that die on the vine.  Harvest this lost revenue.
• Your most productive sales and operational personnel are up to four times as productive as the bottom-tier personnel.  Coach, upskill or challenge the middle and bottom tier performers who are keeping you from profit.  That’s right, they are holding you back from profit.
• Learn how to identify and reduce hidden revenue and fee leakage.

Michael McFadden’s session “Data Driven Insights: Factors for Improved Profitability” touched on how challenging predicting warehouse funding expense can be and how the vast complexity of dynamic data needed for funding decisions makes traditional methods impractical. Michael went on to discuss the following:

• Complex decisions rely on complete, up-to-date insights. Decisions can no longer be static but evolving as factors change. Typically, IMBs have 1:1 integration with warehouse lenders, hindering competitive expense analysis. Funders often lack visibility into dynamic pipeline factors that impact decisions.
• Today’s mortgage climate is vastly different from just a few years ago. IMB’s face volume headwinds from elevated mortgage rates, limited inventory, and the rise of SOFR (up about 350% from last year). With the rise of SOFR, every day a loan sits in the warehouse has a negative impact on profitability. With data-driven insights, you can effectively shorten dwell time and increase efficiency.  
• As the industry evolves, it’s important to be tuned into the right data to make key decisions about – and take control of – your lending business. Tapping into internal and external data streams on a continuous basis not only increases efficiency but offers more predictable and profitable financial outcomes.

Rosie Marlier’s “Planning to Win: Breakdown or Breakeven?” focused on metrics that can help your firm with benchmarking/planning to ultimately make better decisions faster and help firm leaders think critically about their financial decision-making. Rosie covered recent mortgage trends such as production mix, net production income, costs to originate, and gain on sale metrics and asked the following questions to get attendees thinking:

• What are red flags that can help our financial decision-makers identify possible liquidity and/or solvency problems?
• What biases do I have that are impacting my judgments and decision making when budgeting and/or forecasting?
• What are some of the common pitfalls of financial forecasting?

Brad Marckx’s “Uncle Sam and the ‘State’ of Confusion: A Discussion and Review of Tax Challenges in 2023” discussed how owners and management are getting called daily about the Employee Retention credit (ERC). Brad discussed the ERC and the confusion around state hiring remote workers and highlighted key tax and non-tax implications to be considered with remote worker employees and hiring decisions. Some key points from his sessions are below:  

• Early this year, the Internal Revenue Service put the ERC on the infamous “Dirty Dozen” list. The Dirty Dozen is designated annually for certain transactions which are inclusive of structures transactions, scams, or other items the IRS just doesn’t like.  In IR 2023-45, released in 2023, the IRS cautions of attempts by promoters providing misinformation about refunds while claiming large fees for assistance.  
• Employers should be aware of all the potential state & local business tax obligations created in each state where such remote workers work from home that go beyond payroll taxes. Bringing on remote workers may also expand an employer’s exposure to many non-tax costs and regulatory requirements that widely vary by state. Whether an underwriter, back office, tech support, or other employee may be ultimately more costly than expected.

As for the Loan Vision Team, the Loan Vision Lab and Accounting Tracks were another huge success. The team worked extremely hard to give attendees the best insights into how to get the most of Loan Vision to help your business become more effective, more efficient, and more profitable. The team also had full schedules in between their sessions, taking care of the Loan Vision Lab one on ones with our customers. The lab is always one of the most utilized parts of our conferences, and we were so happy to be able to provide it to our attendees for a 5th time.  

LVUC2023 ended, per usual, with our Network Event hosted at Tamayo. This is always one of the most fun parts of our annual conference, as the attendees and team get to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and enjoy great drinks and delicious food.  

We’d like to thank all of our wonderful guest speakers and sponsors who contributed so much to our 5th User Conference and the attendees who allowed us to bring it to life. These conferences truly would not be possible without the support from every single one of you. We’re so happy to have been able to give you 5 wonderful User Conferences, and we can’t wait to start planning the 6th! See you somewhere in the continental United States (as Carl put it) next September!

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