This years biannual USOBA (Untied States Organization for Bankruptcy Alternatives) conference is being held in my home town of San Diego, more specifically Coronado California, so I decided to drop on by to see what is new in the debt settlement industry.

Let me tell you there is a lot going on in the debt settlement industry, a lot of regulations!

I happenend to have missed the first session and walked in right into the session lead by either Robert Knight or Jim Christie, not sure which, but one of the two was discussing  regulations and training. The need for documentation was made to be a very very important procedure even down to the smallest things like testimonials on your website. The fact is that the FDIC will look at every little thing you do if a red flag is raised and I quite frankly it was a little scary to think about and listen to. Ongoing training and 3rd party audits need to happen regularly to keep your operations clean and trouble free.

As I mentioned previously I missed the first session which covered the bail out bill and loss mitigation. I’m really disapointed to have missed it the session, but heard that with regards to loan modifications it is still fairly unkown what the role will be for the government. One thing worth addressing is that it is my opinion that the government will not replace those of you who are facilitating loan modifications, especially in the current economical climate and the fear that the government is going to take more control with entrance of the new administration. So I think you can all feel safe and continue pushing forward in this new vertical. If you think otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts.

The other session worth noting was lead by John Ansbach of EFA Processing and discussed the importance of customer service. The debt settlement vertical has been batterd and bruised by public opinion. Its a widely known view that debt settlement companies rank right up there with used car salesmen.  With this public opinion out there, John raised the point that it is more important then ever to become fanaticle about customer servic. We will see how this sticks with the attendance.

The first day was good overall and I will keep you posted tomorrow about its events too.

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