For the first time, the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) will feature collaborative workshops to help those in the title industry develop plans to attract talented employees, prevent wire fraud, improve their marketing strategy and increase diversity in their offices. The 18
th annual NS3 is being held June 1-3 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in Orlando, Fla. The Collaborative Workshops track will take place Thursday, June 2.
The track will kick off with Title Alliance Chief Strategy Officer Lindsay Smith leading a discussion on how to best achieve talent acquisition and retention goals.
Next, Linda Grahovec
, SVP, director of education and marketing strategy, FNF Family of Companies, will lead a “Sales and Marketing Tips” discussion.
“Is it better sales goals that we need or is it a better marketing strategy that we need? Whether you are a small business or a mega company, it can be very hard to draw the line in the sand between sales and marketing – both structurally and individually,” Grahovec told October Research. “Sales and marketing may go hand-in-hand, but determining which comes first and the goals and strategies for both are very different. We will discuss how to evaluate what you have and where you need to go with sales and ‘selling’ and how to create the right marketing for your company and ‘market.’”
At the “Lender & Title: A Collaboration” session, Chris Gulotta, founder, Gulotta Grabiner Law Group, PLLC and Real Estate Data Shield, Inc., and Rick Bruhn, senior vice president, head of commercial deposit and payment solutions for U.S. Bank, will lead a guided discussion to help lenders and title agents learn how they can improve collaboration on wire fraud prevention.
Gulotta noted that a 2021 FBI study revealed there were 19,954 victims of business email compromise (BEC) attacks, representing losses of nearly $2.4 billion– an average of more than $120,000 per incident.
“In real estate transactions, BEC attacks, or scams targeting the wire transfer process, exploit the need for many different parties in every transaction - lenders, title, settlement, law firms, Realtors, etc.,” Gulotta said.
“This collaborative brainstorming session will identify best mitigation tactics including regularly training and testing staff to identity phishing emails and other fraudster tactics, establishing a dual wire verification process and verifying wires via a known and trusted contact number and creating a circle of trust at the beginning of each transaction to educate each party about this threat and to confirm their identity (name, phone number, email address, and backup contact, if applicable).”
The fourth and final discussion on the Collaborative Workshops track will be, “Building a DEI Plan.” Vanport Escrow and Title Co., Inc. President Fred Stewart will show attendees how to create a plan to diversify their team and the return on investment that comes along with it.
For more information on NS3 2022, including the agenda and a list of speakers for all three days, click here. You can register for NS3 online or click here to get information on how to register via mail, fax or phone.