Program areas at ALFN
Events and education:the organization and its members strive to be the recognized leader oflegal education in the Financial services industry. In 2022 we hosted 4 live in-person events, 12 webinars, and other online presentations with alfn committees. Our online presentations are recorded and made available on-demand. All of our events are conducted to continue offering our members and clients with educational and networking opportunities. See schedule o for more info.primary educational events, hosted by the alfn: answers alfn's 20th annual conference, held july 17-20 at the hyatt regency tamaya resort, with 13 educational sessions and 231 attendees. This annual event is held each july at a different resort destintation, with 225-400 attendees. Answers remains the key event for alfn members and the association's servicing partners to meet, Network, grow their business, and deepen their relationships. Answers is a mortgage servicing and regulatory compliance event that leads the industry in educational content and networking opportunities. Answers brings together attendees from mortgage servicers, government-sponsored enterprises, national banking institutions as well as the alfn's leading Network of attorneys, trustees, and industry service providers. 9 hours of cle credit was available for attorneys at this event.foreclosure intersect alfn's 11th annual foreclosure conference, held in-person november 16-17 at the marriott dallas las colinas, with 6 individual sessions and 137 attendees. This annual event is held each fall in dallas, with 80-140 attendees. This program covers the latest updates in foreclosure, including a forecast of trends and issues to come. Our schedule includes detailed sessions on national issues and foreclosure topics, and spotlights state-specific issues that have a broad impact on our industry. Sessions are structured for both basic and advanced levels. Foreclosure intersect reinforces positive collaboration with bankruptcy and foreclosure departments, Legal counsel, service providers, borrowers and investors. 6 hours of cle credit was available for attorneys at this event.bankruptcy intersect alfn's 11th annual bankruptcy conference, held in-person march 9-10 at the marriott dallas las colinas, with 6 individual sessions and 78 attendees. This annual event is held each spring in dallas, with 80-120 attendees. This program covers the latest updates in both commercial and consumer bankruptcy, including a forecast of trends and issues to come. Our schedule includes detailed sessions on the latest in bankruptcy issues, and spotlights specific issues that have a broad impact on our industry. Sessions are structured for both basic and advanced levels. Bankruptcy intersect reinforces positive collaboration with bankruptcy and foreclosure departments, Legal counsel, service providers, bankruptcy trustees, borrowers and investors. 6 hours of cle credit was available for attorneys at this event.willpower alfn's 5th annual women in Legal leadership "will" summit was held in-person april 28-29 at the ritz-carlton dallas, with 8 sessions and 105 attendees. This annual women's leadership summit, held each spring in dallas with 100-150 attendees, is hosted by the alfn's largest member-driven volunteer group, women in Legal leadership "will". This event is less about your typical industry topics, and more about building relationships and professional development alongside some of the industry's brightest thought leaders, connected by the same will of empowering women to lead. Men are also encouraged to attend and be involved.additional educational events hosted by the alfn:online webinars - alfn continues to provide several webinars each year to assist our members and clients regarding breaking national and local Legal issues. Since the webinar program started in january 2008, alfn has hosted over 340 webinars on topics covering economic outlook, litigation trends, regulatory and compliance updates, legislative updates, bankruptcy best practices, other foreclosure related topics, and many others. Our webinars reach an average audience of 100 - 200+ for each presentation, with nearly half of those attendees being mortgage servicers & gse's. Alfn consistently places good, solid, practical information in the hands of our members and clients on a regular basis. Our regular webinar attendees are members of the loan servicing community executive management, in-house counsel, investor groups, and state and federal housing and rating agency executives. Based on attendee feedback, these broadcasts continue to be one of our top-rated online educational offerings. Our committee members regularly host webinars on regulatory issues and other Legal topics, as well as practice building and professional development topics.onsite training for mortgage servicers:we typically host onsite training events at mortgage servicer locations to train their staff on industry topics and Legal issues. We also offer customized online training sessions to meet the educational needs of mortgage servicers who are unable to accommodate in-person training events. Additional presentations, events and communications:annual awards presentation:the alfn has three separate awards that we announce each july at our answers conference, with recognition provided in the alfn annual awards publication. Alfn industry achievement awards. These awards are open to alfn members and mortgage servicers or gse's whose overall achievements and work within the Financial services industry has helped provide opportunities in advancing the Legal and Financial services industries, through education, training, leadership, mentoring or acting as a role model. Up to 6 alfn industry achievement awards are given each year (including up to 5 awards for alfn members, and 1 servicer or gse award). Award recipients display the highest level of professionalism and leadership, and have been a continued advocate for the industry and alfn for an extended period of time. 4 alfn industry achievement awards were given this year (1 mortgage servicer, 3 alfn members).alfn jpeg picture the future awards presented by alfn's junior professionals & executives group "jpeg". Nominees should be under the age of 40, and must be employed in-house by an alfn member business, mortgage servicer, or gse. We are looking for a few key attributes in our jpeg picture the future winners each year, including: long-term commitment to the creditors' rights industry; initiative and willingness to lead, educate, and improve our industry as a whole; individuals who are service and volunteer leaders, recognized within their organizations, and who bring value to the alfn; individuals who are role models for other young professionals and who are actively involved in the advancement of young professionals in our industry. We recognized 13 young professionals who received the picture the future award this year. Alfn member service awards. Award given to the top 2 attorney-trustee member companies and the top 2 associate member companies that have exhibited the highest level of support and participation in the alfn throughout the past year. This level of support is determined by a member companies' participation in certain alfn activities such as leadership positions held, committee involvement, authoring articles, speaking at events, and others. We recognized 4 alfn members with the member service award this year.alfn updates by email distribution:alfn issues Legal updates to our database of nearly 6000 industry professionals as we become aware of important issues, to help identify and explain cases that take new or novel approaches to statutory claims and, in doing so, identify important Legal trends as they develop.other industry events attended by the alfn staff and board:alfn executives attend several other key industry conferences throughout the year (not hosted by the alfn), we typically attend the mba mortgage servicing conference held each february (alfn exhibits annually at this conference with our exhibit booth), five star conference in dallas held each september, and others.
Publications:the alfn creates and distributes frequent electronic updates to our list of nearly 6000 industry contacts, keeping them informed regarding the latest industry information, Legal updates, regulatory & legislative updates and other groundbreaking initiatives. Our publications (offered online and in print) include the angle & willed (quarterly magazines), & the legalist (membership directory) & annual awards publication. The alfn, through its members, is routinely recognized in various industry publications, alfn periodically submits press releases regarding our accomplishments to other industry publications. See schedule o for more info.alfn publications are made available at all alfn events throughout the year and at our exhibit booth at the mba mortgage servicing conference each february.the angle is the alfn's flagship publication, published online and in print each quarter. The magazine features in-depth Legal analysis of local, state, and federal laws affecting mortgage servicing, bankruptcy and foreclosure throughout the country. Readers will find member spotlights, state snapshots, infographics, and feature-length articles in each issue of the angle. Willed contains articles that are authored by members of the alfn's women in Legal leadership (will) group, and is published online and in print on a quarterly basis. Articles focus directly on the issues that impact women, with a focus on empowering women by providing the educational tools they need to be leaders.the membership directory guide (the legalist) is distributed in both digital and print format, and is updated in february, april, july & november. This publication includes an easy-to-use alphabetical listing of all alfn members throughout the country and is organized by state (for attorney-trustee members) and service (for associate members). The publication also includes information about the alfn, how to join, event information and other details about the alfn. The annual awards publication is available online and in print, and is used to recognize the recipients of our 3 different award types. The publication is released each july at our answers conference.
Advocacy and industry leadership:alfn submitted amicus briefs on issues that impact our members and industry clients. The alfn continues to work with servicers and gse's to maintain strong relationships with our clients as they assist us to ensure that the efforts and direction of alfn remains consistent with their unique industry needs. Alfn continues to grow and develop our strategic relationships with influential industry leaders. See schedule o for more info.we submitted a draft safe harbor letter to the cfpb to suggest changes that work for the mortgage default industry. We continued our outreach to fannie mae and freddie mac to continue advocating for the needs of our collective members. Alfn continues to maintain a direct source reo closing and title referral program with reo nationwide that continues to funnel reo closing and title business to attorney members of the alfn. Mortgage servicers continue to seek referrals through the alfn member Network, and peer-to-peer Network referrals continue among members through the alfn. We worked with isn corp to pursue possible referral opportunities for our members through the united states department of agriculture (usda), rural development (rd), for national default management services (ndms). This opportunity is providing file referrals to our members for foreclosure services, reo, property preservation services, appraisal services, eviction services, and bankruptcy services through the usda rd's default portfolio. These relationships have directly resulted in new business opportunities for our members and direct cost savings on many important products and services utilized by alfn members. Alfn continues to work with other associations in our industry where itmutually benefits our members and clients. We periodically participate with these other industry associations through joint task forces to draft comment letters on regulatory issues and others. Alfn also submits individual comment letters, and this year we held individual calls/meetings with the cfpb, fannie mae & freddie mac. We continually seek opportunities where are advocacy efforts can result in positive results for the best interests of our members.
Membership and governancealfn added 6 new attorney-trustee members (law firms and foreclosetrustees) to our Network, and 15 new associate members (industry service providers), bringing our total number of members to 134 (total member count by company name). Alfn welcomes these new members and are glad to have them as part of the organization. Their contributions will only help to strengthen the alfn, which continues to be the largest Legal services based professional trade association in our industry space.our board of directors met 9 times telephonically for our monthly meetings, held other calls as needed to discuss pressing issues, and met 3 time's in person during the year to conduct association business and strategic planning.form 990, part vi, section a, line 6:the alfn offers four general membership types: attorney/trustee,vendor/associate, mortgage servicer and governmentinvestorattorneytrustee members are categorized into two separate classes:1) affiliated attorney/trustee and 2) non-affiliated attorney/trustee.only affiliated attorney/trustee members and non-affiliatedattorney/trustee members have voting rights.