00:12from Chicago with housing wire I'm Allison LaForgia and I am sitting down with the Loretta CEO Katie
00:18Brewer Katie it's so nice for you to join me today thank you for having me I am happy to
00:24get
00:24to talk to you today so for those who might not know Loretta well give us the elevator pitch who
00:31are you and what do you do oh great question so you know we've been we're a 40 year old
00:36company this
00:37year we've been in business for 40 years we've provided tax flood and some title products to
00:43the industry and you know it's not the most exciting segment but it's a very important one
00:50right because if you think about property tax it actually it spans the entire life cycle of the
00:56loan so from origination all throughout servicing and beyond and so really important to get it right
01:02the first time it's a it's a complex business as well so there are over 22,000 taxing authorities
01:11we've got over 3,000 clients we monitor and manage millions of loans and so you know you've got to
01:18make sure you know how they want the payment when they want it you've got the right contact and that
01:23type of thing changes all the time so we built the infrastructure the delivery mechanisms and the way
01:29to be able to provide those services seamlessly to the industry I talked a little bit about flood so
01:34we've got flood products as well flood determination so at origination you need to know whether that
01:39property is in a flood zone obviously you have to monitor your portfolio to make sure you know those
01:44things change all the time so we've done all the geospatial mapping with the FEMA data and so we
01:50update that regularly obviously as we need to so we provide flood products as well as title tax
01:56certificates at closing so it's a great important segment and we we enjoy it it is a critical segment
02:04and it's interesting because tax and flood services aren't the most talked about in the industry true
02:13especially that specific corner of mortgage servicing why do they matter as much as they matter
02:19you know it's one of those interesting segments to your point they're not the most talked about so
02:24they're not the most exciting but it's one of those things but core absolutely and you know I think
02:29it's one of those things that when it goes right you don't hear about it so it's it's no news
02:35is good
02:35news but when it goes wrong it can really spiral and and become a big problem and you know when
02:42we
02:42think about it from a borrower experience standpoint all of these there's a borrower at the end of the
02:48at the end right so it's an emotional thing it's not just an operational issue but it truly impacts
02:55that experience and as we think about our clients they're the front line with the borrowers right you know
03:00obviously we provide some services in terms of communication but um they're the front line so
03:05when something goes wrong it's on them and you know our job is to make our clients look good right
03:10we
03:11want it to be seamless we want it to be um there to be just no issues at all and
03:16so that's what we
03:17strive for so accuracy is one of our biggest the biggest things we strive for and the biggest things
03:21that I'd say sets us apart from others too now you mentioned earlier 40 years what do you think
03:29sets Loretta apart after 40 years in the business well so I just touch on accuracy and I think again
03:35that's such a core component of our delivery uh that's that's one of the things and so again
03:41one of those things where if it goes right no one should know about it it's when it goes wrong
03:46that's
03:46a problem and so we focus on accuracy quality and delivering you know as as seamlessly as possible
03:52for our clients so that's a that's a critical element for us I'd say we have amazing customer
03:57relationships right 40 years in business and in this business relationships are not gained overnight
04:03right so it takes time you've got to prove yourself you've got to deliver and you've got to be that
04:09trustworthy partner that can deliver to um to our clients and so we've got many amazing relationships
04:15across the industry that we've built over time third really is our customer service right and so
04:20it's how we deliver to our customers it's how we can be that trustworthy partner we put customer service
04:27to set every um in every aspect of what we do right so as we're designing a process or mapping
04:34a
04:34workflow we think about that borrower impact down the line and make sure it's a good one right because
04:39again that experience if it turns bad then it's bad for us it's bad for our client and so customer
04:45service is just really critical for us so I'd say those are the three things that really set us apart
04:49more than anything um of others so Katie you've talked about what sets you apart you've talked
04:56about the 40-year history how important it is for you to make the people that you partner with
05:00look good have good customer service and make sure that they're put in the best position possible
05:07let's look at the future for a second Loretta has been known as the tax and flood company
05:13is that changing it is and I'm excited about that so I look I think I I love talking about
05:20our core
05:20services but I really love talking about the future because that's I'd say the more exciting of where
05:25we're going um you know 40 years in business we've built up a tremendous asset which is our data
05:31um you can imagine 22,000 taxing authorities um all the trends all the data all the you know the
05:38changes
05:38over time um as well as our flood data that we have the geospatial mapping and so we've got a
05:44lot
05:44of data as an asset and we really haven't leveraged that externally today um so that's going to be a
05:49big
05:50focus for us going forward um we we've got undergone two major projects this year um one has been on
05:58uh
05:58data cleansing again 40 years worth of data how do we organize it how do we make sure we have
06:03the data
06:04that we want to pull from have that all organized and ready to go and the second really is modernization
06:09so how do we modernize our data we've been moving to snowflake um snowflake enables us to better
06:14deliver to better architect and do better really a better user interface to deliver that data and so
06:20we're excited those are those are two big projects that we've been um undertaking and again it's going
06:25to be able to help us really modernize how we how and what we offer to our customers you know
06:31historically we've offered great vortex and flood products but this will actually open up a whole
06:37nother adjacent product to what we do today katie one it sounds very exciting it sounds like there's
06:44some big things on the future for loretta but also i noticed that you talked about data and it would
06:50be remiss for us to not talk about the elephant in the room which is ai ai is the word
06:55of the moment
06:56in every industry it's ubiquitous how does it fit in aloretta so we we really can't deliver our data
07:05without an element of ai right and and my favorite day-to-day i don't know what i do without
07:11claude in
07:11my life these days right um but we've really rolled out ai across our entire organization so
07:17we started with giving everyone access um at all levels within the organization now that's obviously
07:23going to be provisioned by role and and what tool is best right because as we've learned there's
07:28specialization within ai so we want to focus on who can do what best and and how we do that
07:33um so we started out with an ai ambassador program so really this is on the ground throughout the
07:40company we've got ambassadors in different roles and they come together on a regular basis
07:44they uh talk about what they're doing in their day-to-day and and that way we can figure out
07:49use cases
07:49across the business so it's not segmented within one individual but really a broader scope and so
07:55um we've got the ambassadors we have our tomorrow labs um which really focus on what are the successful
08:03use cases how do we how do we bring that better what questions do people have about using ai and
08:09how
08:09can we really just really deliver better across all of our teams and then we have a transformation
08:14team and our transformation team really focuses on um taking those use cases making them repeatable
08:22um and automated processes so that we've got some standardization right so we don't have one person
08:28over here doing one thing and another over here and so you know it's really we've come a long way
08:33in our use of ai and of course that's going to help us better deliver our data products right so
08:37not just our operational workflows and um you know our processes and and other pieces of automation but
08:45really helping us better deliver our data and our insights and our products so really excited about
08:51where we're going with this if you can't tell um but i think that's going to be a huge area
08:55of growth
08:56for us so if you had to describe where loretta is headed in the next few years how would you
09:02describe
09:03that's a good question look i think um we have an amazing core business of our tax and flood and
09:11you know that's not going to change we still are excited to provide that you know when you look at
09:17the tax and flood business it's very fragmented you know 22 000 agencies varying degrees of standard of
09:25i'll say very much a lack of standardization therefore varying degrees of like automation you've got some
09:31that we actually have to walk in and get a tax bill in person we need a paper bill and
09:36then we have full
09:36api and then something you know then everything in between as you can imagine so you know i think we'll
09:42continue to improve it um you know we are at the mercy of the taxing authority so there's you know
09:47we
09:47can't perfect that part of the process but we can really change the way we take in data how we
09:53utilize
09:53it and how we how we can actually deliver better we've got obviously our data products which are
10:01going to be really complementary to the services we already provide to our clients and so really excited
10:08to see where we can take those again continue to create a value on what we already deliver today in
10:14the great space but just really being able to expand ourselves and really focus on what's next and
10:20what our clients are interested in you know we've had a lot of interest in the data products and and
10:25you know so we're excited about that but then again back to the core core tax processing right we
10:31we actually have the lowest claim ratio in the industry of the top national providers and we want
10:38to keep ourselves that way how do we continue to deliver better how do we make sure that that is
10:42the
10:42best client experience across the board and so i'm really excited i think again we're going to grow in all
10:48the spaces um data is probably the newest space but um lots more to come so we're excited lots more
10:53to come well katie congratulations on 40 years to the whole loretta team it's so impressive to see
11:00how much you guys have grown and it sounds like there's so much to come i can't wait to sit
11:05with
11:05you again thank you so much i enjoyed it thanks for the time of course all right
11:10you
