AMBA Matters Spring 2016 by Amanda Roy

Tweet us your picture @AMBA1975 and @MortgageProsCan #CAMPJASPER #PAYMYWAY

We’ll Pay

Matters #CAMPJASPER #ELEVATEYOURSELF

YOUR WAY TO

PHOTO CONTEST

R E P S A J P CAM e Preview Conferenc

ALSO INSIDE

amba's 2016 Charity: Community Key do your job

Spring 2016

Matters

Spring 2016 A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR ADVERTISERS...

this issue's articles

8 9 12 14 16 18 26

Xeva Mortgage �� 2 Caplink �� 4 Equitable Bank �� 4 Romspen �� 6 Calvert ��11 VWR Capital Corp. ��15 LMS PROLINK ��16 First National ��25 CMHC ��29 Cedar Peaks ��31 D+H ��33 Armada Mortgage ��38 Home Trust ��39 Street Capital �� 40

is a quarterly magazine which provides fundamental information to members of the provincial association, offering an opportunity for the industry members to be educated, updated and entertained. Toll Free: 1.888.452.2652 Phone: 403.685.9652 Fax: 403.685.9682 Email: info@amba.ca Web: www.amba.ca Suite 150, 1209 59 Ave SE Calgary, AB T2H 2P6

Board of Directors President Dave Trithart DLC 1st Financial Link

Past President Adil Mawji Invis

Vice President Ron McClenaghan Invis

Treasurer Katie McDowell Mortgages Are Marvellous

Education Ryan Spence D+H

Events Erica Fikkert Equitable Bank

Consumer Relations Jan Gosse Jencor Mortgage Corp.

Consumer Relations Pam Pikkert Dominion Lending Centres Regional Mortgage

RIDE THE AI TRAIN OR BE RUN OVER: TIME MAY NOT BE YOUR FRIEND - PART TWO

Government Relations Kevin Weeks Weeks Law

Communications Stephanie Blake DLC 1st Financial Link

30 34 36

Membership (South) Tracey Robinson Mortgage Protection Plan

Membership (North) Shawn Jewers First National Financial

debt consolidation

curling festivities Highlights

Amba'S 2016 CHARITY: COMMUNITY KEY

Matters

reca update: Fraud Prevention

Amba 2016

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? 2016 AMBA CONFERENCE PREVIEW: CAMP JASPER

DO YOUR JOB

AMBA 2016 WINTER GAMES HIGHLIGHTS

member profile: LACIE Popesco

Director-at-Large Michael Cameron Axiom Mortgage Solutions

Magazine Publisher: Amanda Roy-Macfarlane

OTHER FEATURES... President's Report 5 Manager's Report 7 Industry News 32 2016 AMBA Event Calendar 38

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association Suite 150, 1209 59 Ave SE Calgary, AB T2H 2P6 Art & Design: Erin Lehtisaari Some photos within this issue ©shutterstock.com.

Spring 2016

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Spring 2016

2016-01-19 1:58 PM

President’s Report

Spring 2016 Dave Trithart AMBA President

If you attended either of the holiday events in Calgary or Edmonton back in December you would have heard that one of my main goals is to get an increased level of engagement across the province, and to stress the importance that our association, the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association, is the provincial voice.

In 2015, I encouraged industry members to become engaged and assist me with getting other industry members involved. As a result of these efforts, the 2016 Board of Directors has representation from Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer. This is a great first step but as an association, the work is not done. I hope to continue this effort and have all industry members in Alberta recognize the importance of having a strong association to ensure that we are included in all regulatory matters.

AMBA’s vision statement is:

To be the acknowledged leader in mortgage expertise and professionalism by consumers, regulators and government. In our three-year strategic plan, AMBA recognized six strategies toward this vision and I am proud to say within the first quarter of my term, AMBA has already initiated a number of these. The first strategy was to build consumer awareness. Hopefully you have seen AMBA’s television ad being run on Shaw TV channels. This ad is the first step in promoting the AMBA website and having consumers use an AMBA mortgage broker member when seeking financing for a home. Our communications and consumer awareness directors will be working on the next steps to this strategy.

One thing we have heard repeatedly is: What is the value of being a member of AMBA? Our goal is to provide you, our current members, with some answers and to encourage you to get the message out. AMBA is the oldest association in the mortgage industry in the country. To maintain our reputation, we need a strong voice — this is done by having all mortgage brokers as members. All of our committees will be working on projects of value — we now have committees formed for education, events and membership that include members from all parts of the province. As an association, we listened to our members (mortgage brokers, industry partners and sponsors), about the number of events and cost of attending each event. We now have an agreement with our national association, Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC), to eliminate duplicate events within Alberta by partnering together to host major events, thus bringing better value. The first joint event will be AMBA’s annual conference June 5-7, 2016, at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. This will be a first-class event, as AMBA and MPC are bringing you some outstanding speakers, value-added educational opportunities and amazing networking and fun. You will not want to miss it! Lastly, I would like to encourage everyone to help our association by giving us any suggestions, input or spare time you may have to get involved in any of our committees. Please reach out to me at any time.

Remember for the next three years VALUE is AMBA’s theme. Why not reach out and tell us what VALUE means to you.

Spring 2016

Romspen Investment Corporation is a non-bank mortgage lender specializing in commercial real estate across Canada and the United States. With over $1.5 billion under administration, we offer customized mortgage solutions for term, bridge and construction financing from $4M to $100M.

OPPORTUNITY IS OFTEN SIMPLY A MATTER OF SEEING IT FIRST. Blake Cassidy 800 494 0389 | www.romspen.com

Tweet us your picture @AMBA1975 and @MortgageProsCan #CAMPJASPER #PAYMYWAY

Amanda Roy AMBA General Manager

y a P l l ’ We YOUR WAY TO

General Manager’s Report

Spring 2016

PHOTO CONTEST

Come Camping On Us We'll Pay Your Way To Jasper

We want to pay your way to Jasper. This is a great opportunity to show us your creativity on Twitter. All you have to do is take your most creative photo illustrating how badly your inner outdoorsman wants to join us at Camp Jasper and Tweet us @AMBA1975 and @MortgageProsCan, using the hashtags #CAMPJASPER #PAYMYWAY.

The top four submissions will be eligible to win one of: • Camp Jasper registration (valued at $489); • One night accommodation at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (valued at $259); OR • A round of golf at the Jasper Park Golf Course (valued at $200) All submissions must be shared by May 24 at 12 p.m. MST. The contest winners will be announced May 26.

Happy Shooting and Tweeting! *Please note: All industry partner photos promoting Camp Jasper are welcome, but only current AMBA and MPC mortgage brokers who are registered for Camp Jasper prior to May 24 are eligible to claim the contest prizes. The prizes outlined above are only valid during the Camp Jasper conference period (June 5-7, 2016).

Spring 2016

RECA Update: Fraud Prevention Every March, organizations across Canada participate in fraud prevention month. This year, the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) took on a bigger role in the event, joining with other organizations in Alberta to spread the word about fraud awareness and prevention. Since 2006, RECA’s mandate includes protecting against, detecting and suppressing mortgage fraud as it relates to the professions RECA governs. RECA takes this part of its mandate very seriously, and mortgage brokerage professionals — along with RECA — have an important role to play in increasing awareness and prevention of mortgage fraud. Education is key for fraud awareness and prevention, and RECA has tools and resources to help mortgage brokerage professionals prevent fraud, including what red flags to look for to avoid inadvertently becoming involved in mortgage fraud. While March is officially fraud prevention month in Canada, RECA knows fraud awareness and prevention needs to happen all year round. As part of this year’s fraud prevention month, RECA has added new mortgage fraud prevention resources and tools to its website for consumers and licensed professionals.

Mortgage Fraud Red Flags RECA has mortgage fraud red flag documents for industry professionals in each industry sector: Real estate, mortgage brokerage and real estate appraisal. These comprehensive lists of red flags can help you identify potentially fraudulent activity. Vigilant mortgage brokerage professionals can significantly reduce fraudulent mortgage applications.

Avoiding Mortgage Fraud: What Consumers Need To Know

Industry Professional Research In the fall of 2015, RECA hired Weaver Marketing to conduct a survey of industry professionals in Alberta to gather feedback about their awareness of, and satisfaction with RECA. The feedback given by mortgage brokerage professionals was used to serve consumers and the industry better — RECA values your input. Here are the top five things RECA learned from mortgage brokerage professionals. Mortgage brokerage professionals reported being very clear on RECA’s role as a regulatory body — 91 per cent of participants said ‘thoroughly’ or ‘very aware’ — as well as having a clear understanding of RECA’s relationship to trade associations in Alberta. Generally, mortgage brokerage professionals reacted most positively to the question of whether RECA achieves an appropriate balance between providing support for the industry, while still meeting its mandate of enhancing consumer protection.

A great resource, What Consumers Need To Know is a fundamental document about the four main types of mortgage fraud. Consumers can learn about what each type of mortgage fraud involves, and how to identify signs that may point to suspicious activity. This resource is also available in Mandarin and Punjabi.

Of all the groups of industry professionals RECA regulates, mortgage brokerage professionals claim slightly higher levels of understanding of the Real Estate Act and Rules than other industry professionals.

RECA Blogs On Fraud Awareness and Prevention

Satisfaction levels with the effectiveness of selfregulation model were highest among mortgage brokerage professionals, compared to other industry professionals RECA regulates.

Over the course of fraud prevention month, RECA published several blogs about fraud awareness and prevention. To review the top five things you can do as a licensed mortgage brokerage professional to detect and prevent mortgage fraud, visit the RECA website. Fraud prevention lasts all year long, and RECA is here to work with licensed industry professionals, stakeholders and consumers to raise awareness. RECA encourages mortgage brokerage professionals to take advantage of its new mortgage fraud awareness and prevention materials. To view RECA’s new mortgage fraud prevention resources and tools, visit, https://www.reca.ca/consumers/information/ mortgage-fraud-awareness-prevention.html

Spring 2016

When asked about the current opportunities available to their industry, mortgage brokerage professionals mentioned their access to training and resources, and a public image that conveys the professionalism of their industry. Council is reviewing this Weaver Marketing research along with consumer focus group results in its development of RECA’s next Strategic Plan. Watch for additional updates from RECA in the coming months.

Debt Consolidation

Sherwin Dziwenka, Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation

A new calendar year brings fantastic opportunity to examine and make tweaks to your financial plan. Few can deny it feels good to be prepared for the year ahead, yet Canadians are less positive about their finances going into 2016 than they were a year ago. According to a recent CIBC poll, 69 per cent felt positive about their finances going into 2016, down five per cent from the previous year. Alberta in particular is the least positive region in the country with only 62 per cent of those polled feeling confident about their finances — down 21 per cent from last year. This may be in part to the large amounts of debt many Albertans have. Thanks to lifestyle creep, Canadians continue to enjoy some of the highest debt levels in the world. People have a hard time managing their spending when their income is not growing. The result is many individuals have too much unplanned debt. Considering the flux in the oil patch and the tanking Loonie, there has never been a more important time to talk to your clients about their debt load. The current low mortgage rate environment creates an opportunity for mortgage brokers to take their client’s high interest rate credit card debt and convert it to a new first or second mortgage. Not only does this deliver peace of mind, but it benefits clients by saving them interest costs, reducing monthly payments and improving their credit score.

Six Reasons To Consider Debt Consolidation The most obvious reason to consolidate debt is to lower the overall interest rate charged on the debt clients have to save money. More often than not, this is the main reason clients are coming to you, because they are looking for options. But there are a number of other reasons you should be considering.

one monthly payment as opposed to making multiple payments on different debts. Most importantly, this payment will cost them less in the long run.

Four — Better Credit Paying off debts that are at, near or possibly over the credit limit, will help your clients improve their credit score, allowing for easier refinancing in the future. With an improved credit score, your clients could save more money in the future by being eligible for lower interest rates.

Five — Barriers To Refinancing You want your client to be able to leverage the equity they’ve built up in their home. There are situations where an encumbrance on the title or Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) debt may need to be paid off before a lender will extend your client money. This could limit the refinancing of their mortgage. Writs on title for CRA, property tax debt and condo fee arrears are all examples of debt that could cause problems if a lender isn’t willing to renew a mortgage.

Here is what you need to know about debt consolidation.

One — Decrease Interest Rates Private lending rates are often much lower than credit card rates. If your client has equity in their home, they should take advantage of the opportunity to reduce their rates.

Two — Improve Cash Flow Decreasing the rate and amortizing the loan is another good reason to consolidate. Your clients then have the ability to focus on the higher interest rate debt that was not consolidated, or at the very least they’re allowed some breathing room.

Three — Peace Of Mind Being in over your head in debt can be very stressful. What you’re selling is peace of mind. You need to communicate to your client that consolidating debt will allow them to have only

Spring 2016

Debt Consolidation Six — Barrier To A Sale Debt may also cause problems when trying to sell a home. Large taxes owed on a property may inhibit your client from selling their home. They may need to pay off that debt first in order to make the sale.

Who Should You Target?

The Strategy The first thing mortgage brokers should do when counselling a client looking to consolidate their debt is to prepare a list of all debt owed, including the interest rates, monthly payments and total balances. Ensure you have the most up to date information, so don’t be shy and call their creditors — you will need to know exactly where their debt currently is. Some creditors have even been known to negotiate lower balances if they know a mortgage broker is working on behalf of a client to pay the debt.

The obvious candidates for debt consolidation are individuals with challenged credit. They often have limited options through financial institutions and require alternative methods of financing. They’re also in need of a plan that can get them back to low interest rates. As a mortgage broker, you can help them develop a strategy to rebuild their bad credit score and get refinanced with an A or B lender. For most clients and lenders, this is a win-win situation, as both benefit from the deal. It’s also a double win for you, by benefitting from two deals and helping your client get back on track.

TIME TO Strategize!

The less obvious candidate for a debt consolidation mortgage from a private mortgage lender are bankable clients who have good credit, steady income or even alternative lender clients with good credit and stated income. For whatever reason, they haven’t been able to make certain payments and now are in a situation where they can’t refinance their mortgage.

Client Scenario Secured Debts Property value:

$540,000

First mortgage:

$392,000

Unsecured Debts Line of credit:

$12,000

Car loan:

$14,000

Credit card debt:

$35,000

Monthly Payments On All Debt First mortgage: Line of credit: Car loan: Credit cards:

$1,730 $125 $650 $1,050

Total $3,555

10 Spring 2016

A mortgage broker helped his clients, a couple, get out from under their debt. Over the years the clients accumulated $35,000 of credit card debt and cannot keep up with their monthly payments. The couple has equity in their home and the first mortgage interest rate is 2.35 per cent, but there is a significant payout penalty. A mortgage broker could recommend they keep their existing mortgage and get a second mortgage to pay down their debt. This second mortgage could save the couple more than eight per cent in interest compared to what is currently being charged by their credit card company. The couple qualifies for a second mortgage for $38,000 at 12 per cent. The cost of arranging the financing is $3,000 including all fees. This leaves $35,000 to pay down their debts. The couple pays off their entire credit card debt and reduces their monthly payments by $658, from $3,555 to $2,897. This will help the couple with lower monthly costs until the refinance. Most importantly, this couple has been given guidance on how to treat their credit, and when their first mortgage term is up, their mortgage broker arranges for a new mortgage to payout both the first and second mortgages at even lower rates.

Next, you’ll want to examine what equity is available. At this point, many jump to an appraiser to evaluate the property. Prior to doing that, take a moment to do some simple math. Answer these simple questions:

with that date and ensure the lender you pick will renew with no fee if the refinance isn’t quite ready. If it’s short term, opt for an open mortgage and look for lender options that allow flexibility in paying out the mortgage when they are ready.

• What does the tax assessment value indicate;

• What does the last mortgage statement say; and

• Is there anything else on the title that needs to be paid?

Finally, you’ll need to prepare your client with an exit strategy. Have a clear plan for them to follow, and ensure they know what’ll happen if they stray from it. Don’t be afraid to check-in on a regular basis to help your clients stay on track. Putting in that extra time at the beginning positions you nicely for future opportunities.

After reviewing those numbers, go ahead and put your best guess on the current value of the property to determine if there is equity to use in debt consolidation. Clients don’t often know the best way to structure their debt. This is where your expertise comes in. They’ll look to you for what should be paid out, closed off and in what order. Naturally, high interest payments should be paid down before those with a lower rate. Older credit cards in good standing should be kept open. Your client probably isn’t ready to have access to significant amounts of credit, but it’s good to have at least two lines of credit with a minimum $2,000 limit, with a mixture of revolving and installment if possible.

For more information on debt consolidation loans and how we can help you structure the right financing for your client, visit chmic.ca/debt-consolidation/.

“As lenders, we care about both the amount of debt a borrower can be responsible with, and various types of debts they can manage well,” says Dale Koeller of Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation. When determining what lender options are available, the client needs to consider how long they’ll require the loan before they can refinance with a low interest rate lender. Align the maturity

Alberta’s Private Mortgage Lender

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Call us today for more infomation

888.752.4642

Dale Koeller, Sherwin Dziwenka & Dean Koeller

info@chmic.ca

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Spring 2016

AMBA

CURLING BONSPIEL 2016

CURLING FESTIVITIES HIGHLIGHTS FEBRUARY 4-5, 2016

Bonspiel Champions Colin Topolnitsky — Axiom Mortgage Solutions Shawn Jewers — AMBA Director, Cheryl Shaw — Dominion Lending Centres 1st Financial Link Stephanie Blake — AMBA Director

B Winners

C Winners

Shawna Rhode — Axiom Mortgage Solutions Melinda Mantello — Axiom Mortgage Solutions Krista Rumberg — Axiom Mortgage Solutions

Mitch Stolarchuk — Optimum Mortgage Mitch Estrada — Optimum Mortgage Sheila Massey — Verico Di-Verse Mortgage Bill Bush — Optimum Mortgage

amba rocks the red piano — kick off party

Spring 2016

Win Your Way To Jasper Congratulations to Cathy Duncanson for winning our charity raffle — Win Your Way To Jasper — in support of our 2016 charity Community Key.

D Winners Ryan Spence — AMBA Director Imran Thaver — Genworth Canada Edward Kim — Genworth Canada Bhavna Chavda — TD Broker Services

Thank You!

turkey shoot winner Bill Bush — Optimum Mortgage

Thank you to each and every sponsor and curler for making the curling bonspiel and the AMBA Rocks — The Red Piano (Kick-off Party) a success. We would also like to give a special thanks to the Mortgage Loans Association of Alberta (MLAA) Edmonton for partnering with us to host AMBA Rocks — The Red Piano (Kick-off Party).

AMBA

CURLING BONSPIEL 2016

Spring 2016

AMBA’s 2016 Charity: Community Key Have you ever imagined what you would do if one of your children become ill? Have you ever asked yourself how you would split your time between the hospital and work, or how you would pay the medical bills, or for your mortgage? You never think it will happen to you, until it does. Past AMBA president Paul Bojakli knows this story all too well, when one day he received that frightening call about his daughter, Jaimee. An experienced synchronized swimmer, Jaimee had an accident in the pool and was rushed to the hospital. As Paul raced to the hospital, all he could think was if Jaimee was OK? Luckily, after five days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Jaimee was released with a clean bill of health and clearance to go back to swimming. However, during those long days and nights, Paul witnessed the countless hours families spent in the hospital with their children. It made him wonder: At what point would less fortunate families have to make the difficult decision that one or both parents would return to work, spending less time with their ill child? After doing some research with the Quantus Mortgage Solutions team, Bojakli discovered there was no program in Canada assisting families with terminally or critically ill children make their mortgage or rent payments during a health crisis. And so, Community Key was born.

An industry initiative, Community Key has already raised $30,000, and is hoping to award its first family funding in 2017. Visit www.keyed.ca for more information or to find out how you can help.

Mission Community Key helps families that are caring for a seriously ill or critically injured child in paying their mortgage or rent — allowing them some relief from one of their largest financial burdens. Their aim is to ‘key’ as many families in need as possible, so they can focus on what truly key — family.

How They Do It Community Key reaches out and educates local hospitals, social workers and various health organizations on its program. Applications are reviewed by an independent team of volunteers composed of various professionals including: Social work, healthcare, insurance and finance. When a recipient is chosen, Community Key helps in two ways: 1. Makes direct payments to the recipient’s lender for either their mortgage or rental payment. 2. Works with their lender to take advantage of available programs to delay or minimize their mortgage payments during their time of need.

How You Can Help — Keys For A Cause Community Key has partnered with North American Jewellery designer Kate Hewko to create Community Keys one-of-akind hand engraved pendants made of salvaged keys. All proceeds from the sale of these key pendants will go directly to Community Key.

Silent Auction Join us and support a great cause

lead sponsor

14 Spring 2016

in support of

What Are The Chances? Derrick Leue, President, LMS PROLINK Insurance Group Inc.

Leonardo DiCaprio technically had a 20 per cent chance of winning the 2016 Oscar for best actor. Realistically, DiCaprioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chances were likely greater than that, given the Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history or soft spot for awarding actors previously nominated but never rewarded. This fun example aims to demonstrate the challenges Errors and Omission (E&O) insurers face when forecasting the percentage of mortgage brokerages that will experience future E&O claims. The impact of an unpredictable real estate market on claims against mortgage brokers is difficult to model.

Is The Gorilla 900 Pounds? All E&O insurers know that the chance of their client being named in a lawsuit rises when the real estate market slows down, because falling values often lead to financial losses for lenders. The challenge for many E&O insurers underwriting mortgage brokers is their lack of historical claims data from previous real estate market corrections. Many of the E&O insurers providing coverage for mortgage brokerages were not underwriting E&O policies during the last market correction experienced in Alberta between July 2008 and August 2009. While actuaries thrive using historical data, insurance underwriters try to make an educated decision on the appropriate premium to charge given their actuaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis. As a result, E&O insurers are trying to determine if the current market downturn will be the 900-pound gorilla causing severe claims in coming months and years. The claims frequency never increases immediately after the real estate market starts to fall and there is no prescribed formula correlating claims to a certain

percentage drop in the average home price. The PROLINK Insurance Group knows from experience that the claims frequency increased dramatically in 2009 and 2010, leading some insurers to stop writing E&O policies for mortgage brokers soon thereafter. There is a general understanding amongst mortgage brokers that there are more lawsuits brought against brokerages during and after a market downturn. At PROLINK Insurance Group, we are fielding more questions from brokerage owners regarding their chances of being sued as a result of falling real estate values. Mortgage professionals often ask how long after the real estate market has rebounded should I be concerned? Insurance underwriters and actuaries would love to know the direct correlation between a one per cent drop in real estate prices, and the percentage increase in claim frequency against mortgage brokerages. Unfortunately, there is not enough data available to develop a scientific formula for the impact of decreasing real estate values on E&O claims.

Can Mortgage Professionals Improve Their Chances? The PROLINK Insurance Group cannot predict what percentage of the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Associations members will experience a lawsuit as a result of falling prices, as there are many differences between the types of mortgages arranged and the nuances of the real estate market. Instead, we would like to spend our time educating members on the types of mortgages that the E&O insurers believe are more likely to be the focus of a future lawsuit.

Here are the top three types of mortgages that have a higher chance of resulting in a future claim: High ratio (i.e., LTV of 85 per cent or higher) residential mortgages on high value homes; Multi-unit residential development projects; and Second mortgages private lenders.

16 Spring 2016

funded

individual

Once you have arranged a mortgage with an inherently higher E&O exposure, then you need to maintain a close relationship with the lender to remain proactive on payments in arrears. The lender is the party most likely to bring forward the lawsuit against the mortgage professional, so strong communication is important for a positive relationship.

Learn More about the AMBA E&O PLUS+ Program The PROLINK Insurance Group Inc. is the proud manager of the AMBA E&O Liability insurance program. We welcome

Now Is Not The Time To Oversell A Deal

the opportunity to help you understand how to reduce your exposure to E&O claims. It is important that you

We understand that new mortgage activity may be declining. However, you should never cut corners because it may come back to haunt you in the form of a future E&O claim. We hope that AMBA members will be well-prepared to defend the inevitable increase in the frequency of claims from lenders as a result of the current real estate correction. Our longer term goal has always been to improve the defence of claims brought against brokers, and to reduce the overall E&O premiums for AMBA members.

select an E&O insurer has a long-term view on protecting your brokerage instead of an insurer who provides a low introductory price only to apply large increases after a claim. Please contact a representative from the PROLINK Insurance Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s AMBA Service Team in order to learn more about how E&O PLUS+ protects brokerages and associates. Peter McCabe: AMBA Program Business Development Manager; PETERM@LMS.CA Phone: 800.663.6828 Website: www.LMS.ca/AMBA

Private Lender Proteccon: Visit our booth at the 2016 AMBA conference in Jasper

Spring 2016

Set in the majestic Canadian Rockies, this conference promises to be a world-class event. There will be many new opportunities, educational seminars, speakers, entertainment and activities to experience over three days at Camp Jasper. Established in 1907, Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies with 10,878 square kilometers of mountain wilderness. It contains a superb back-country trail system as well as the world famous Columbia Icefield, one of the only Icefields in the world accessible by road.

venue - fairmont jasper park lodge (Alternative Jasper Accommodations on page 23)

BOOKING RATES AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON AMBA.CA

Situated in Alberta's magnificent Jasper National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the iconic Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge resort invites you to experience our Great Canadian Lodge, surrounded by nature and abundant wildlife. Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge is a 700-acre year-round luxury mountain resort which wraps around the shores of pristine Lac Beauvert and Canada's No. 1 Golf Resort Course. The resort's charming village of cedar chalets and Luxury Signature Cabins, all connected by picturesque paths, offer guests unique access to explore the natural environment surrounding the resort.

#CAMPJASPER 18 Spring 2016

presented by

SPEAKER

Graham Sherman You can’t fake authentic passion for the job. In the mind of Graham Sherman, the keynote speaker at this year’s annual conference, you can’t truly succeed as an entrepreneur without passion, either. Spend two minutes with the ultra-enthusiastic Sherman — who along with his buddy Jeff Orr started up the successful Tool Shed Brewing Company four years ago — and you’ll know full well what passion really is. “Trying to get something like this accomplished, you’d better be freaking passionate about your dream otherwise you will be derailed fast,” Sherman said of the craft brewery that’s become one of Calgary’s success stories, even amidst a tough economy. “This is a result of that obsessive passion for making beer.” Sherman and fellow self-proclaimed technology nerd Orr met nearly a decade ago in Afghanistan while installing encrypted satellite communication networks for the military. A pair that admittedly goes to extremes with any endeavour — Sherman’s quest for a perfect cup of coffee drove him to roast his own beans in his home — their love of homemade beer morphed from a backyard shed to a burgeoning company. Want proof of how hard they’ve worked for their dream? On top of maxing out every bit of credit they could think of to get things up and running, the entrepreneurs were forced to find a brewery in British Columbia to make their concoctions and drive it back to Alberta themselves until the provincial government dropped the minimum which must be produced to sell commercially, in December 2013. “It’s fun, but it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else,” Sherman said. Since the change in legislation, Tool Shed opened a 15,000 square foot brewery in Calgary and has a regular product line of four beers: a stout, India pale ale, red ale and cream ale, plus a variety of seasonal craft beers. Their success has been meteoric, but even that comes with difficulties.

“We’re going way faster than we could imagine or handle,” Sherman said. “Our biggest problem is in a typical month, we have about 300 orders go unfulfilled because we cannot make enough beer for the demand. “It’s a good problem to have but a very real problem.” Right now, they’re in the final stages of developing a new brew, not only made up of barley, hops, wheat and yeast all from Alberta, but using an age-old Belgian technique of having nature naturally propagate the yeast. “It’s at a whole new level when you can get something that cool. It’ll be Alberta in a bottle,” Sherman said. Alberta in a bottle with a fun story. Then again, that’s another element of Tool Shed’s appeal. The name of their beers each come with an anecdote behind it. For example, the People Skills cream ale is named after a co-worker in Afghanistan who had — how should we say this? — a difficult personality. “It’s a picture of him on the can and he was furious when he first saw it, but the story of him is on the can. We called him People Skills,” Sherman said. “Everybody knows a jerk who could use a pint of people skills. “People, they relate to the stories we have and it makes it more fun, and that’s important because at the end of the day, we’re not saving lives, we’re making beer.

“So that’s what we’re supposed to do, chill out with great people, tell stories and enjoy a great beverage.” #ELEVATEYOURSELF Spring 2016

SPEAKER

Jesse Brown Digital Media Expert Disruptive Journalist Futurist Written by Randy Sportak

Some people see chaos in today’s world of technological and cultural change. Some people see uncertainty. Some see a challenge. The key to succeeding through it all, according to Jesse Brown — the digital media expert, disruptive journalist and futurist who will be speaking at the annual conference, in Jasper June 5-7 — is to see the opportunity. In a new world in which very few people will have a job for life in one organization, Brown believes recognizing what possibilities lay ahead and hustling to fill those needs equates to success. “When you calm down from your primal fear and start to see the opportunities, they’re fun,” said Brown. “From my experiences, I’ve learned how to manage the anxieties and looked at the opportunities that arise. They can lead to some really interesting opportunities.” Brown’s career path may seem meandering, but the Torontobased journalist has used all of those experiences to create the very successful crowdfunded news site Canadaland, delivered via podcast and online. “We’re tiny, a micro-company, and my salary is lower than when I was working in traditional media, but it’s the first time in my career I’ve worked for a company that’s getting bigger and not smaller. That’s a fun feeling,” Brown said of his venture, which has a full-time staff of six counting himself. Canadaland started as a hobby in October 2013, but Brown — whose career included a pair of stints as a host on CBC Radio, a technology writer for Maclean’s and Toronto Life magazines and

contributor to The Guardian, The Toronto Star, and Vice — saw it grow enough within a year to become a successful business. He appealed to the 10,000 weekly listeners to the podcast to subscribe and within the first few days had around 800 pledge an average of $5. “Within an hour, I was able to make it a part-time job, and within days could make a full-time go at it,” Brown said. “People are willing to pay for things they see having value.” While Brown has been known more for focusing on the media criticism, his reporting skills came to the fore in the fall of 2014 when he broke the story that CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi was fired from his position, and worked with Toronto Star reporter Kevin Donovan on the stories that Ghomeshi was facing charges for sexual assault. It’s that work and success which gives Brown the belief a new breed of journalism will fill the voids traditional journalism is falling short of providing. He sees a similar blueprint for all forms of business. “When you get over the panic of wondering how you’re going to make money, you get to the point of saying, ‘What do I really want to do?", he said. "Do I really want to set myself up for failure at something I’ve lost interest in or something I enjoy?"

“If you have to take a gamble, risk failure, you might as well risk failure at something you really want to do.” #CAMPJASPER 20 Spring 2016

SPEAKER

Chris Hayduk Detective, Edmonton Police

SPEAKER

Mark Parsons

Assistant Deputy Minister of the Economic and Fiscal Policy Division

SPEAKERS

Detective Chris Hayduk is an 18-year member of the Edmonton Police Service and is currently assigned to the Behavioural Assessment Unit — and has been for the past three-and-a-half years. The Behavioural Assessment Unit is comprised of three detectives assigned to conducting threat assessment and risk management on high risk violent and sexual offenders. Previously, Chris has worked in a variety of positions within the Edmonton Police Service, including investigations regarding mortgage fraud and its role with block busting, and as the lead investigator on a massive mortgage fraud investigation.

Mark Parsons is the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Economic and Fiscal Policy Division at Alberta Treasury Board and Finance. He previously held the position of Chief Economist for the Government of Alberta. Prior to joining the Alberta Government, Mark worked as a senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and as an economist at the federal Department of Finance in Ottawa. Mark is the past president of the Economics Society of Northern Alberta, and has published studies on a range of economics topics. Mark holds a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Alberta.

Delegates will have the option to attend three of the five sessions during the three-day conference.

Charles Stevenson Director of Professional Standards, RECA

Charles Stevenson joined RECA in early 2010. Since that time, Charles has been involved with licensing, information services, communications, trust assurance and practice review, professional conduct review and professional conduct proceedings. Prior to RECA, Charles enjoyed a 13-year career predominantly in residential real estate at the end of which he was the broker for one of Alberta’s largest real estate brokerages and worked in franchise development for an Alberta real estate franchisor. Charles was also an Alberta Real Estate Association and RECA-approved instructor for both pre-licensing and re-licensing programs and served the Lethbridge & District Association of REALTORS® board between 2003 and 2006, sitting as president in 2005.

Eric Poblete Strategic Account Manager, Equifax

Eric Poblete is the Equifax strategic account manager responsible for the Canadian Mortgage Broker market. He has responsibility for all the brokers and superbrokers in Canada as well as direct responsibility for the mortgage portal providers, (D+H and Marlborough Sterling) and the mortgage insurers Genworth and Canada Guaranty. He brings 25 years of Enterprise sales and account management experience to the industry. His ultimate goal is to continue to improve the information and processes within the industry to maximize efficiency for all the stakeholders, namely the brokers, lenders and insurers.

Zaki Alam Senior Vice President, MNP Ltd.

Zaki is a Senior Vice President at MNP Ltd in their Insolvency and Restructuring Services department. He is a Trustee in Bankruptcy and Chartered Accountant and has extensive experience in both consumer and corporate insolvency restructuring. He specializes in working with individuals and proprietorships through creditor proposals, bankruptcies, debt repayment negotiations, protection of assets and wage and financial counselling. A recognized expert on consumer financial issues, Zaki is regularly sought out by television, radio and printed media for comments about personal finance topics.

Breakout Session #4 tba

Breakout Session #5 tba #ELEVATEYOURSELF Spring 2016

2016 Camp Jasper Schedule June 5-7

SUNDAY, June 5, 2016 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Camp Check-In

(Broker Camp Arrival Experience: 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30 and 4:00 pm)

Monday, June 6, 2016 7:30 am

Sunrise Yoga

9:00 - 11:00 am

Tradeshow

9:00 - 11:00 am

Breakfast Service (Tradeshow Floor)

9:45 - 10:00 am

Opening Remarks (Tradeshow Stage)

10:00 - 10:45 am

Economist Discussion (Tradeshow Stage)

11:20 - 11:35 am

Break

11:40 - 12:20 pm

Breakout Sessions Round 1

12:20 - 12:30 pm

Break

2:30 - 6:30 pm

Tradeshow

12:30 - 1:10 pm

6:30 pm

All first day Campers Log Books must be turned in

Breakout Sessions Round 2 (Lunch Service)

1:10 - 1:20 pm

Break

1:20 - 2:10 pm

Speaker: Jesse Brown

2:10 - 2:30 pm

Break

2:30 - 5:00 pm

Camper Activities

5:30 pm

All second day Campers Log Books must be turned in

Spark at Trefoil (Kick-Off Party) 7:00 pm

Shuttle service to Spark at Trefoil Begins

7:30 pm

Cocktails

8:15 pm

Buffet Dinner

8:30 pm

Welcome Greeting

8:40 pm

Entertainment

7:00 - 7:30 pm

Cocktails (JPL Lobby)

9:30 pm

S'mores

7:30 - 8:15 pm

AMBA Awards (Dinner Service)

10:00 pm

Shuttle Service Begins

8:30 - 12:30 am

Entertainment

11:00 pm

Trefoil Wrap Up

11:00 pm

Late Night Snack

AMBA Awards Under the Stars

top 5 jasper attractions Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the towering, snow-capped mountains, the pristine, glacier-fed lakes and rivers, the wildlife-filled forests or the quaint town-site itself, the unparalleled beauty of Jasper will take your breath away.

Jasper SkyTram

#CAMPJASPER 22 Spring 2016

Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course

Take a hike

Ride the River

Jasper Planetarium

TUESday, June 7, 2016 7:30 am

Rise and Shine Run

9:00 am

Breakfast Buffet

9:30 - 10:15 am

Speaker: Chris Hayduk

10:15 - 10:45 pm

Break

(Note: Attendees departing following the conference need to check out from their hotel room prior to 11 AM)

10:45 - 11:30 am

Breakout Sessions Round 3

11:30 - 11:40 am

Break

12:20 - 12:30 pm

Lunch Buffet

12:30 - 1:10 pm

Keynote Speaker: Graham Sherman

1:10 - 1:20 pm

All Aboard The Rocky Mountaineer — Trip Winner Reveal

(Note: You must be in attendance in order to win. Courtesy of Equitable Bank and AMBA)

1:00 pm

Departure — Jasper Activities and Attractions for Additional Attractions and Activities

Alternative Jasper Accommodations

Since 2006, AMBA has celebrated industry accomplishments by recognizing the foundation that has allowed the association to thrive for four decades—our members. The best of the best will be celebrated at our formal event, showcasing the commitment and passion of our most dedicated members and the past decade of recipients. It will be an event to remember. AMBA’s prestigious awards pay tribute to the standout mortgage professionals in our province, highlighting the achievements of our members for their longevity, leadership, ambassadorship, partnership, volunteering efforts and overall excellence. The 2016 Awards will be held June 6 at the Jasper Park Lodge in conjunction with our annual conference—CAMP JASPER.

BOOKING RATES AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON AMBA.CA

Jasper Best Western

98 Geikie St. Jasper, AB

The Best Western Jasper Inn & Suites provides family suites with a kitchen and fireplace and makes extended stays comfortable. The facility provides a pool, steam room, hot tub and sauna, a popular restaurant and lounge, as well as complimentary parking.

Tonquin Inn 100 Juniper St. Jasper, AB

Surrounded by majestic snow-peaked mountains, the Tonquin Inn hotel in Jasper National Park provides endless opportunities for adventure in the Canadian Rockies. This hotel's accommodations include cozy, sunken living rooms, convenient kitchenettes and home away from home charm. Tonquin Inn offers a fun-filled escape from the city!

Pyramid Lake Resort

5 km North Up Pyramid Road, Jasper, AB

This chalet-style alpine resort features 62 guest rooms all with a gas fireplace and views of both Pyramid Lake and the Rockies. Choose from a wide range of accommodations from rooms with kitchenettes and private bedrooms to loft suites.

An Outdoorsmen's Mecca of Tradeshows

Our world-class tradeshow will be bustling with activity, packed with more than 40 exhibitors, rustic-outdoors-themed activities and the chance to win a dream vacation. If you’ve attended past conferences, you’ll remember that our participants take the theme to heart. So you know this tradeshow will thrill!

#ELEVATEYOURSELF Spring 2016

Spark at Trefoil Lake

Join us at JPLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trefoil Lake to kick off the celebrations with Spark, a truly festive camping experience complete with a bonfire, s'mores and special guest entertainment by local warrior women.

Warrior Women

A dynamic duo of awesomeness sharing Aboriginal culture and music through drumming, singing and performance with a twist of funk.

2016 Conference Sponsors Title Sponsor

diamond Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Title Insurance Asset Protection Process Solutions

ASSOCIATE LEVEL

ÂŽ

#CAMPJASPER 24 Spring 2016

#ELEVATEYOURSELF

keynote speaker

Graham Sherman

GUEST speaker

JESSE BROWN Digital Media Expert Disruptive Journalist Futurist

Valued at $6,000 AMBA_Ad_Feb2016l copy.pdf 1 1/25/2016 11:17:55 AM

Full qualification details available June 5 at the Tradeshow Challenge

Going beyond service in 2016

It’s hard to believe that the new year is here. Your team at First National has been hard at work planning and prepping to continue going beyond service in 2016. Our commitments to you remain the same, but our goal is to always get better. You can expect continued, yet enhanced:

CMY

• Innovation: Merlin helps you manage deals and My Mortgage helps your clients manage their mortgages. • Partnership: ongoing support to help you reach your goals and grow your business. • Collaboration: immediate access to and quick response from our branch teams and Account Managers. • Personal service: understanding your individual needs and delivering on them every time. The First National team is looking forward to working with the broker community to make 2016 our most mutually successful year yet.

firstnational.ca Ontario Mortgage Brokerage License No. 10514

Spring 2016

“Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from Magic” — Arthur C. Clarke 1973 revision Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination. Welcome to the Magic Hour right soon enough! In Part 1 of this Series, published in the 2015 Fall AMBA Matters, we rang the bell on exponential implicational considerations of the impending future of artificial intelligence and expert systems (“AI”) and our historical braking reliance on the linearity of time which will not work well going forward. And you go, “Huh”? More simply put the tried and tested truisms we have all heard from Mom and others like “Things take time”, “All things in good time” “Be only a matter of time” are about to be displaced by Dr. Suess and his “How did it get so late so soon”? This is not to say that the linearity of time has or will become irrelevant but it has and will be circumvented more so going forward than it has in the past. Even the Omaha Oracle Warren Buffet’s time linearity metaphor that, “You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant” may be at risk in some ways that we just have not thought of or seen ….yet! At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in early January in Las Vegas, I saw evidence everywhere of AI and its insidious creep which is fast becoming a raging race. The Robotics and Unmanned Systems Marketplaces alone had dozens and dozens of exhibitors with their versions of AI encased in physically moving body forms and not just vacuum cleaners and drones. They are communicating and a few are sort of interbreeding; all as some Ancient Alien Astronaut Theorists have long contended and foretold.

In October 2015 AlphaGo, a Deep Mind neural network deep reinforcement learning AI system beat GO grandmaster Fan Hui, Europe’s reigning GO champion for the past 3 years, 5-zip. Deep Mind is an AI company acquired by Google in 2014 for $400 million dollars and GO is one of the oldest (think 2500-4,000 years ago) and epically complex board games in the world. For those who don’t play suffice it to say that its complexity and possibilities at least from a computational viewpoint make chess look a bit like “Simple Simon”. Interestingly enough and there are several reasons for this, GO has at the low end at least a Googol (pun intended) move possibility outcomes (which is 1.0x10100 or a 1 followed by a hundred 0’s) or to put it in perspective, a number equivalent to more atoms than there are in the universe and all of that and more makes it particularly difficult for memory and ‘brute force” AI techniques to be effective; which otherwise work well with games like Othello, Jeopardy and Chess aka IBM’s Deep Blue AI triumphs of recent years. This was not supposed to happen so quickly and maybe never beating analysts’ expectations as to when a computer AI might be capable of such a feat by as much as 10 years or more.

Go AI Go! The public announcement of this closed door match came late and recently via a paper published by Google Deep Mind in the science journal Nature January 27, 2016 and was promptly followed with the announcement of two significant events. First, in early February 2016 John Giannandrea Google’s artificial intelligence chief was appointed head of Google’s bread and butter search division and the departments were rolled together. Second, the now legendary GO match scheduled for March 8 to 15, 2016 at the Four Season’s Hotel Seoul, South Korea between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol the best GO player in the world over the past decade was announced and then held too much pomp and ceremony. Going in Lee Sedol and GO experts worldwide were touting and expecting a sweep 5-zip by Lee Sedol or maybe one unexpected loss to AlphaGo. After all Fan Hui is only a 2Dan and Lee Sedol is a 9Dan rated player don’t you know with a wink and a nod? Back to reality, AlphaGo swept the first 3 Games and

26 Spring 2016

the Match collecting the $1,000,000 prize money in the process before closely losing Game 4 via a pull the rabbit out of the White Hat 78 move made by Lee Sedol that has since been referred to as the “Hand of God” or nobody saw it coming move, including AlphaGo. Or just maybe AlphaGo threw humanity a bone out of concern over being turned off in anger or fear. AlphaGo wins Game 5. Final result 4-1 AlphaGo. Why go on about this? Why is this a Big Deal? Wait here it comes! These technologies and algorithms can be applied to many other processes where, amongst other components, strategy and huge datasets are very important (think financial trading or war ala the 1983 film War Games with a young Mathew Broderick and the WOPR [War Operation Plan Response] AI, where Tic Tac Toe meets Global Thermonuclear War). This is one of the primary reasons why gaming has been so forefront in AI research. It is the lab rat of AI systems research and the rat may well be learning way too much way too fast. There are obvious reasons why sprinters don’t race dragsters and weightlifters don’t compete against cranes. But if cognitive skills and mental abilities of such complexity, subtlety and intuition are displaced, what else and who is next? For AlphaGo, how about healthcare in partnership with the British National Healthcare Service and another complex game named StarCraft? Underway and ongoing. Over in China, Baidu which is the Chinese equivalent of Google is already getting into the risk assessment game with insurance and loan underwriting. Oh and all the usual suspects, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter are all building their AI sandboxes to play in which at this early stage is as much about who can draw and maintain the best AI people and talent as really serious immediate progress and results.

The New Competition Now meet Evia (Expert Virtual Insurance Agent) of Insurify.com an online AI that is touted to find you the best car insurance after applying reviews, customer service satisfaction, available discounts and comparison shopping, initiated by you simply texting them a photo of your license plate. A few text response questions later and Bam! You are now “best insured” is the premise. Fascinating stuff! As all this progresses and advances, there will be an increasing squeeze put on a growing number of intermediary professionals including many white collar jobs or as I say, “The One in the Middle is the One in the Vice”. Although in recent years there has been substantial growth in the intermediary market share, which will now be coming under attack by these AI systems. In the context of financial planning and investment, mortgage brokers, realtors, insurance, lawyers and others of similar ilk will need to assess their prospects of being disintermediated. And there are and will be lines of demarcation drawn, one of the basics being the distinctions between business to business, business to consumer and consumer to consumer relationships and transactions. While one may be tempted to rest secure in the view that the real world applications of AI technologies such as IBM’s Deep Blue and Google DeepMind that will really affect one are quite a ways off, that would be a mistake. While Chess and GO are

games that abide by a set of hard rules that cannot be broken and are therefore much more amenable to automation than the complexities presented by sophisticated parties to matters such as a real estate or mortgage transaction, there are certainly recurring patterns and designed outcomes in real estate and mortgage transactions. And while we may, from time to time, face a novel issue or case — in all likelihood it is a situation that another broker, realtor or other industry player somewhere else has already encountered, addressed and resolved or at least recorded the match and result. In view of the fact that computers never forget and are capable of programming to take certain data inputs from extremely large data sets to then arrive at a decision, the technical barriers to doing much of the work of a mortgage broker or a realtor or other professional intermediaries via an automated system and process are fading into the sunset. Certainly the elements of the collection and dissemination of data and information are obvious first steps that are well underway. So let’s take a quick look at realtors and mortgage brokers. Is one more at risk than the other and why? By the way, more at risk is probably better put as quicker at risk as all are at some form of ultimate disruptive risk.

Who’s More At Risk? The University of Oxford and Deloitte undertook a study several years ago now that was formulated to predict the probability of AI automation and displacement covering 366 job types including professional services over the next 20 years; which is probably a conservative estimate. The most at-risk job is telephone salesperson with a 99 per cent chance of being replaced by some form of automation, possibly a robot with artificial intelligence. For the real estate sector there is a specific mention of realtors and auctioneers while mortgage brokers would come under the financial advisor category. The analysis predicts real estate agents and auctioneers are “fairly likely” to be automated with a 68 per cent risk and coming 124th out of the 366 roles considered. Financial advisors are “too close to call” with a 41 per cent risk and ranking 199th out of 366.

Spring 2016

Ride The AI Train Or Be Run Over: Time May Not Be Your Friend – Part Two

"OPEN THE POD BAY DOOR, HAL"

We are now entering what is being called the “fourth industrial revolution” and just like the first industrial revolution one will be well advised to embrace and adapt rather than suffer the fate of the Luddites. This cannot be stopped or put another way recall the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”: Dave Bowman (astronaut): “Open the pod bay door, HAL.” HAL 9000 (a sentient computer): “I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.”

"I'M SORRY DAVE.

I'M AFRAID I CAN'T DO THAT"

Why the difference? Presently a significant differential is the consumer customer’s familiarity with the subject matter. They understand homes and at least think they know what they want and require. They feel and are more involved and empowered in the process and the other end of the intermediary is another consumer. In the financial advisor or mortgage broker business there is a myriad of complicated and arcane fractured and subtly nuanced financial options and choices and the consumer is not as empowered and the other end of the intermediary is a business making the golden rules and quite often a large impersonal one. However these differentials are already under stress and not unlike the travel industry with travel agents and the airlines financial advisors risk being circumvented by borrower enablement. Today’s consumers, especially Millennials, are very connected, analytical and demanding and are actively looking for ways to become more empowered and involved. They are all about service and customer satisfaction and they know better than to think that anything is for “free”. According to a Deloitte report of a 2013 survey by a division of Viacom of 10,000 Millennials, 1/3 surveyed believed they won’t need a bank in 5 years and almost 3/4’s of them would be more excited about financial service offerings from a technology company than one from their banks.

28 Spring 2016

So what can one do now? Get interested and start thinking and planning. As someone who is involved and advises on intellectual property, knowledge management and related matters I am excited about the future as the inevitable job disruption and employment realignments are only part of the consequences which will flow; albeit a messy part. I see many opportunities to shelter from and take advantage of the upcoming inevitable changes. I certainly do not recommend you take a wait and see attitude as trying to figure out the analogous corollary to the Wait Calculation (Formula below –Knock Yourself Out!) by deciphering the longest you should wait before starting and still arrive first in time will also not work well.

t Tnow = (1 + r) 2 Tt And please remember to call me (+1.403.209.4988) before you need me. Always Standing By - Cheers! Kevin Weeks Weeks Law

Do Your Job

Mark Pullin, Cedar Peaks Mortgage Services Ltd.

If you know me, you know I follow the National Football League (NFL) — Go Steelers! In recent years, the most successful franchise has been the New England Patriots, led by Coach Bill Belichick. There are many fans who do not like this team or coach, however, success is success. At every New England game, Belichick tells each of his players to ‘do their job’. It makes sense that if we do our job better, then success will follow with: Client satisfaction, employer satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment and pride. Whether you are a broker, a lender, commission based or on salary, we owe it to our employers/the people who pay us to do our job to the best of our ability. There is a big difference between just doing your job and doing your job well.

Broker Guidelines The first step in this concept is to fully define and understand what your job is. Identify the specific tasks and actions that are required to get the job done by putting pen to paper. As an example, the job of a mortgage broker is to find and place mortgages for their clients (if only it was that simple). The specific sub-tasks involved in completing this job are: Understanding your client’s needs; knowing your lenders, their products and how to apply it to your client’s situation; meeting lenders' documentation requirements, and having regular communication with your client. You try to do all of this, while having some sort of time deadline.

Some ideas for completing these sub-tasks are: Meet with your clients in-person, either at their home or at your office; Ask questions and take notes that you can refer to later; Make a point of going to a lenders office once a week to learn about their products and lending guidelines — including A, Alt-A and private lenders; Get to know each lenders' application and supporting document requirements — this one single step can help expedite your funding request, and get you a quick answer; Keep your client updated regularly, especially with bad news; and Get to know your lenders' business development managers, and when possible their underwriting team.

30 Spring 2016

Lender Guidelines As a lender, which I am, our job is to fund mortgages. The tasks in successfully completing this job are many, but it comes down to understanding the role of the broker and the needs of the borrower. Knowing each and every product and solution that can be offered to meet those needs, and understanding the policies and guidelines of the company, its shareholders and investors will assist you in doing your job.

Some ideas for completing these sub-tasks are:

Here are some additional tips to help you do your job better:

Reviewing each application as soon as possible, and acknowledge receipt to the referring source;

Take initiative — always think of better ways to do your job;

Making sure you understand the funding request, and if necessary forward any clarifying questions as quickly as possible — there is nothing wrong with making a phone call instead of an email;

Be a good team player;

Communication with the referring source is critical — good or bad Think of solutions, even if it means recommending a competitor — your referring source will not forget this kind deed;

Take additional education and training; Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but also don’t be afraid to figure it out yourself; Stay organized, set priorities and minimize multitaking; Create a to-do list and stop procrastinating;

Know your company’s products, lending guidelines and the policies and procedures manual; and

Put yourself in the shoes of your client’s;

Build strong relationships and trust by doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it.

Make efforts to exceed your client’s expectations;

Although the above is a general road map for brokers and lenders, the principle is the same for any job. Define what your job is, identify the sub-tasks that are necessary to complete that job, then make a plan and commit to doing what it takes to completing each sub-task to the absolute best of your ability — better than you have in the past.

Know when to email and when to phone ; and Be honest — your reputation will follow you forever.

Spring 2016

Industry News Equifax® BEACON® 9.0 Upgrade On June 1, 2016, Equifax’s BEACON® 9.0 will become the new standard for all mortgage brokers. Available through the Expert and Morweb platforms, BEACON 9.0 is the latest version of the generic delinquency score developed by FICO®. Replacing BEACON 4.0, the BEACON 9.0 risk score is more indicative of the current economic environment and measures new credit information sources to provide a more accurate representation of your client. Offering increased risk assessment precision, BEACON 9.0 maintains consistency with prior BEACON scores in the areas of: Minimum scoring criteria, 300-900 score range, reason codes* and odds to score relationship.

Comparing BEACON™ 4.0 and BEACON™ 9.0 BEACON™ 4.0 BEACON™ 9.0 Buffer window — how long before auto and mortgage inquiries are considered in scoring 30 days

De-dupe window — how long auto and mortgage inquires count together as one 14 days

45 days

300 to 900

No death notice, trade reported within six months, trade open for three months

N/N

Y/Y

1.4 M records

5.0 M records

Feb. 1997 – Feb, 1999

Jul. 2009 – Jul. 2011

Range

Seven Benefits of BEACON™ 9.0 1 More predictive power — more refined risk prediction through an innovative risk performance approach.

Scoring criteria

2 Current market trends — BEACON 9.0 reflects the continued evolution of consumer credit use and predictive risk patterns. 3 New-to-credit populations — evaluates consumers with fewer credit accounts differently from consumers with thicker, more mature credit histories. 4 Line of Credit (LOC) — evaluates LOC separately from other revolving credit instruments since consumers use these products differently.

Mortgage/Telco Development data

5 Mortgage data – a significant trade line which was formerly not accessible to broad-based analytics in Canada. 6 Telco trades — adding these trades significantly increases the scorable population. 7 Enhanced de-duplication window — lengthened from 14 to 45 days, benefiting consumers by more accurately reflecting longer time periods required when shopping for a new car or home.

30 days

Reason codes

If you have questions please contact Equifax’s NCC department at ncc@equifax.com. Equifax.(2016, February). BEACON® 9.0. Retrieved from http://www.equifax.com/assets/canada/english/beacon_9_ps.pdf Poblete, E. (2016, February). BEACON® 9.0 In The Mortgage Industry Version Comparison Webinar. Equifax. Retrieved from AMBA Member Zone — Industry Webinars. * Beacon 9.0 adds 6 additional reason codes. ©2016 Equifax Canada Co. All rights reserved. Equifax and BEACON are registered trademarks of Equifax Canada Co. All other marks are trademarks owned by their respective owners. All trademarks used herein under license.

32 Spring 2016

Canadian Household Debt

Employment Insurance Benefits The Canadian Government has recently released Budget 2016, which proposes to amend the rules and eliminate the higher Employment Insurance (EI) eligibility currently restricting access to new entrants and re-entrants to the labour market. Currently, new entrants and re-entrants must accumulate at least 910 hours of insurable employment before being eligible for regular EI benefits. The new proposal will allow new entrants to the workforce — such as young workers getting their first jobs — or reentrants — like stay-at-home parents who are going back into the workforce — required to work between 420 and 700 hours over the previous 52 weeks to qualify for EI, depending on labour conditions in their area of the country. In addition, Budget 2016 proposes to extend EI regular benefits by five weeks to all eligible claimants —affected in commodity-based regions — and provide up to an additional 20 weeks of EI regular benefits to long-tenured workers, in the following EI economic regions: • Newfoundland/Labrador • Sudbury • Northern Ontario, • Northern Manitoba • Saskatoon • Northern Saskatchewan • Calgary • Northern Albertan • Southern Alberta • Northern British Columbia • Whitehorse • Nunavut

Statistics Canada reported that Canadians ended 2015 with record high debt. The report found that in the fourth quarter, the ratio of household credit market debt to disposable income rose to 165.4 per cent. Meaning that for every dollar of annual disposable income, Canadians households held $1.65 in debt. The report also found that:

AMBA Ad (2016, January 2016_Final.pdf 1 22/01/2016 2:26:43 PM Government of Canada. March). Budget 2016: Improving employment insurance. Retrieved from http://www.budget.gc.ca/2016/docs/plan/ch1-en.html#_Toc446106658

The household debt service ratio — the total obligated payments of principal and interest as a proportion of disposable income adjusted to include actual interest paid — was 13.8 per cent;

The interest-only debt service ratio — household mortgage and non-mortgage interest paid as a proportion of disposable income — was at a record low of 6.2 per cent;

This is to combat the two percent increase unemployment rate in these regions.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, households borrowed $25.1 billion in the fourth quarter;

For all of 2015, household debt rose 4.9 per cent, to a record $1.92-trillion; and Mortgages represented the largest portion of total borrowing at $21.9 billion, up $1.2 billion from the third quarter.

CMY

Parkinson, D. (2016, March). Canadian household debt soars to yet another record. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ economy/canadians-debt-burden-still-growing-hits-record-in-fourth-quarter/ article29172712/ Statistics Canada. (2016, March). National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, fourth quarter. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160311/ dq160311b-eng.htm

Spring 2016

Winter Games Highlights March 3, 2016 Winsport Canada For a second year, industry members enjoyed an evening of competitive fun at AMBA’s Winter Games. All fared well but only a few rose above the rest to become AMBA’s Winter Games Champions. Congratulations to: Gold Medallists Team Japan, Silver Medallists Team Jamaica and Bronze Medallists Team Chile.

GOLD MEDALLIST — TEAM JAPAN:

Getting Into the Spirit

AMBA President Dave Trithart; Mortgage Professionals Canada CEO Paul Taylor; Bob Hutton, Dominion Lending Centres Equity Central; Ed Arnone, Equitable Bank; Mike Havery, Mortgage Architects Inc.; Nicole Pollock, First National Financial LP; Pichu Kalyniuk, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); Sat Dhillon, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); Tracey Morrison, First National Financial LP; and Mark Pullin, Cedar Peaks.

Silver MEDALLIST — TEAM jamaica:

bronze MEDALLIST — TEAM chile:

AMBA Board Director Adil Mawji; AMBA Board Director Pam Pikkert; Brett Roessel, Quantus Mortgage Solutions; Gary Siegle, Invis Inc.; Ivan Cermak, Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada; Lianne Smith, Street Capital Financial Corporation; Marlo Reghenas, Street Capital Financial Corporation; Tony Piattelli, Quantus Mortgage Solutions; and Trupti Patel, Street Capital Financial Corporation.

Triston Rans, Axiom Mortgage Solutions; Jeff Yuzwak, Jencor Mortgage Corporation; Leah Barron, First Choice Mortgage Solutions Ltd.; Lisa Bartlett, First National Financial LP; Maria Solverson, Jencor Mortgage Corporation; Mark Jewells, First National Financial LP; Naomi Wareham, Canada Guaranty Mortgage Insurance Company; Reagan Burton, First Choice Mortgage Solutions Ltd.; and Tara Beattie, First National Financial LP.

34 Spring 2016

#AMBAgames16 Lip Sync Battle Watch your colleagues battle in our lip sync competition. Videos of each team’s performance are available on our YouTube Channel — Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association.

Most Sportsman Like Team — Team USA: Barret Jackson, TMG The Mortgage Group; Dan Haight, TMG The Mortgage Group; Holly Smith, Total Service Mortgage; Jan Hicks, TMG The Mortgage Group; Jason Mykes, TD Broker Services; Layne Walters, TMG The Mortgage Group; Max Singh, TMG The Mortgage Group; Nicki Pike, TMG The Mortgage Group; Remi Korent, TMG The Mortgage Group; and Tanya Blumhagen, TMG The Mortgage Group.

Mortgage Professionals Canada and AMBA Team Up

Win Your Way To Jasper! CHARITY RAFFLE WINNER: Congratulations to Bonny Clarke for winning our charity raffle — Win Your Way To Jasper — in support of our 2016 charity Community Key.

RAFFLE WINNERS: Max Singh, TMG The Mortgage Group; Jacqui Mulikow, Quantus Mortgage Solutions; and Mark Jewells, First National Financial; also took home conference related giveaways, courtesy of AMBA, First National Financial and Alta West Capital.

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! ®

Mortgage Professionals Canada President and CEO Paul Taylor (Far Left), and Chair Jared Dreyer with AMBA General Manager Amanda Roy and President Dave Trithart.

LEAD SPONSOR

Mortgages Are Marvellous

Spring 2016

Member Profile

Lacie Popesco Born and raised in a small town, Lacie Popesco has been in the mortgage brokerage industry since 2012. Popesco started her journey to becoming a mortgage associate as an Aesthetician. Quickly becoming a leader in the industry at a young age, she moved to London, England, to accept a position in London’s leading beauty school. This led to her contracting on board the Emerald Princess Cruise Ship, making Istanbul, Turkey, her home port. After too many 14 hour days and 10 day work weeks, Popesco realized she wanted to make her way home. After returning home, Popesco worked administration and had a couple bank jobs but always grew bored with the repetition. Needing more of a challenge and more meaning, she turned to the mortgage brokerage industry.

Where are you from? I was born in Beaverlodge, AB, and raised in Grande Prairie, AB.

How did you get started in the business? I started in the industry with a local Dominion Lending Centre’s franchise after working for a couple major banks in Grande Prairie. After having my daughter, I wanted to grow my business, but also wanted to be home with my daughter, so I made a switch to a smaller independent brokerage, Shelkor Mortgage Inc. I’ve always believed that I could be successful at being a mom and a broker, and feel like I’ve found that healthy balance within the mortgage broker industry.

Please tell us a little about your company Despite being in the industry for a number of years, I recently joined Mortgage Alliance. I believe that if you surround and align yourself with the best in the industry, then something is going to rub off. My mentor and team leader is Claire Drage. She is in the top five per cent of Mortgage Alliance’s brokers nationally. She has a team of 40-plus agents and has an amazing training company — as an associate, I have access to a powerhouse of knowledge, marketing expertise and training.

36 Spring 2016

Please share three facts about your company. 1. Mortgage Alliance is the only mortgage brokerage company with a $100,000 consumer giveaway. Since 2007, Mortgage Alliance has awarded over $800,000 in prize money to broker customers. 2. The Mortgage Alliance Rally Of Hope is a motorcycle ride across Canada that raising awareness and funds for The Canadian Cancer Society. In 2015, the rally raised $135,000. 3. Mortgage Alliance’s proprietary MortgageBOSS™ system offers a completely integrated dashboard for mortgage brokers. Everything from payroll, compliance, document storage, expense management, email, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, calendars and much more is integrated into this one system. MortgageBOSS™ is constantly changing to offer Mortgage Alliance brokers with efficiencies and more opportunities to grow their businesses.

In such a competitive market, how do you stay ahead of your competitors and remain successful? I’m always trying to learn as much as I can through education, mentorship and team support. I am fortunate to have had some amazing mentors over the last few years who have really shown me the way and believed in me. With that support, my confidence and knowledge has grown and I am forever grateful for those relationships built early on in my career.

What aspects of the mortgage industry do you find most challenging? Staying on top of the always changing rules. Each day there is more to remember and learn, and just when I think I have it, everything changes again.

What is your vision for the mortgage industry? To see continued growth in the marketplace, and to have better consumer awareness.

What do you love about mortgages?

What is your experience with the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association (AMBA)? It’s always been a positive experience. I believe it is important to support AMBA, as they are the voice in the Alberta mortgage brokerage industry. Thank you AMBA for all that you do.

How long have you been an AMBA member? Since 2012, when I started in the industry.

What’s your favourite AMBA event? The annual conference is always great. I love meeting other industry members and building relationships with lenders at the trade show — last year’s conference in Drumheller was amazing, I left feeling inspired and motivated after all the presentations.

What other professional associations do you belong to? Mortgage Professionals Canada.

I love the people and the whole creative aspect of each individual file and situation. No two deals are ever the same, and every day has something different.

Please share three fun facts about yourself. 1. I love adventures — I spent three months backpacking on my own through Tanzania and Kenya. I reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro after a brutal four day climb. 2. I love animals — I have three rescue Chihuahuas, who are like children to me. I’m constantly begging my partner to let me bring home more animals … I’m still working on a chicken! 3. My utensil drawer is perfectly organized with all the utensils aligned. Bonus facts: I love spending time with my family, my heart is set on settling down by the ocean and I have a knack for interior design.

Spring 2016

facebook.com/AlbertaMtgBrokersAssoc

Follow AMBA on Facebook and Twitter for the latest on events, webinars and industry updates

2016 AMBA Calendar of Events

Twitter @AMBA1975

October ALT-A Education Series Webinar October 19, 2016

June Annual Conference

December

In partnership with Mortgage Professionals Canada.

Annual General Meeting (AGM) And Holiday Party December 1, 2016 Calgary

June 5, 6 & 7, 2016 Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Jasper, Alberta

AMBA Family Frozen Festival December 4, 2016 Calgary

September AMBA Golf Tournament September 22, 2016 Innisfail Golf Club – Innisfail

Edmonton Holiday Party December 8, 2016 Edmonton

Throughout 2016

Fall Industry Night September 29, 2016 AMBA Office Atrium

Industry Webinar Series Quarterly (February, June, September, December)

Tweet us your picture @AMBA1975 and @MortgageProsCan #CAMPJASPER #PAYMYWAY

y a P l l ’ e W YOUR WAY TO

PHOTO CONTEST

Take your most creative photo illustrating how badly your inner outdoorsman wants to join us at Camp Jasper and you could win!

All submissions must be shared by May 24 at 12 p.m. MST. The contest winners will be announced May 26.

38 Spring 2016

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