By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

On November 20, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published the Integrated Mortgage Disclosures, combining disclosures consumers receive in connection with applying for and closing on a mortgage loan under the Truth–in–Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

The final rule includes new forms that will be used in virtually every residential mortgage loan originated and closed after August 1, 2015. The new rules are 1,888 pages long! To find out how they are going to impact settlement agents and title insurers nationwide, join us at a "2014 Ultimate Escrow Training" event.

The new vocabulary used in our world lately is amazing. For example, "blight" is not a new word, but it has a new definition and is currently used in many real estate related news articles. It was originally used to describe a plant disease. Currently it is used in the real estate context to mean, "…the physical decline of a property, neighborhood or city due to a combination of economic downturns, residents and businesses leaving the area and the cost of maintaining the quality of older structures."

In this edition we introduce you to a new term called "iMugging." Read the article "BE careful of iMugging" to discover a new word and its definition.

Has the junk email you receive increased significantly? Recent changes to our email accounts have changed the way the spam is filtered by our email servers. The story entitled "GO phish!" reveals the ways hackers are tricking you into clicking on malicious email links.

Is one of your resolutions to be more productive this year? We have the perfect solution to keep you on track with your goal. Read "START the year off right" to discover 10 tips for making yourself more productive in the coming year. Work smarter, not harder!

Our settlement agents are so HELPFUL! They truly want to help consumers understand everything about the closing process and MORE! We want to prove to you over the next twelve months that there are just some things you do not know and as a result, should not help the customer understand.

For the next 12 editions we will run a story called "FIRPTA nightmare" to convince our readers to stop helping customers attempt to understand federal tax law and instead, to refer them to a tax professional.