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92 CALIFORNIA 'Survivor Bill of Rights' is Gaining Traction A "survivor bill of rights," or bill that would protect families from foreclosure after the death of the primary mortgage note holder, has gained traction in California and is likely to see a vote in the state Senate. Senate Bill 1150, authored by Senators Mark Leno and Cathleen Galgiani, has al- ready passed in the Senate Banking and Senate Judiciary Committees. California led the nation in providing foreclosure relief in 2012 when it passed the Homeowner Bill of Rights, which offered cer- tain protections to homeowners. at Bill of Rights did not include protections for surviv- ing family members who are not listed on the mortgage following the death of the borrower. "Instead of getting basic information on how to proceed with a home loan following the death of a loved one, surviving spouses and children face a labyrinth of paperwork and conflicting directions and requests, which only prolongs their grief," Leno said. "Many family members unnecessarily lose their homes with- out ever knowing they had the right to assume the loan or seek foreclosure remedies. Before more families give up, we must step in." Under SB 1150, the responsibilities of a mortgage lender or servicer are clarified for situations in which the borrower dies and a surviving family homeowner not named on the mortgage wants to assume the loan. SB 1150 ensures that heirs are accurately educated regarding loan assumption and foreclosure preventions. e legislation also calls for a single point of contact (SPOC) to be estab- lished for the survivors to communicate with the lender, and it also gives survivors the abil- ity to apply simultaneously for a loan modifica- tion and loan assumption. California was one of the states hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis. Even six years after foreclosure activity in the country peaked, foreclosure levels remain elevated in the state due to the high population. According to CoreLogic, for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2016, there were 23,000 foreclosures completed in California, which ranked fourth among states behind only Florida, Michigan, and Texas. Even with the high number of completed foreclosures, California's foreclosure inventory—percentage of residential mort- gages in some state of foreclosure—was only 0.4 percent in March, which was close to one- third of the national average for the month of 1.1 percent. ClosingCorp Names New VP of Sales, Strategic Relationships ClosingCorp, a provider of residential real estate closing cost data and technology for the mortgage and real estate services indus- tries, announced that Matthew Lichtner has joined the company as VP of Sales, Strategic Relationships. In this position, Lichtner will be re- sponsible for developing and maintaining technology-provider relationships. He reports to Dave Petro, SVP of Sales and Business Development. Lichtner has more than 25 years' experience sales in the mortgage lending industry. Most recently, he was a national sales executive at ServiceLink, where he was responsible for new business development and account oversight for origination products and services, national title & settlement, ClosingStream technol- ogy, valuations, and flood services. Previously, Lichtner was Director of National Sales & Marketing for Decision Ready Solutions, Inc., and SVP, National Account Manager for Stewart Title Company. He also held a series of senior level positions at First American in both the Title Insurance Group and the Information Solutions Group (now known as CoreLogic), including SVP, National Account Director and SVP, Director of Sales. "Matt is a proven sales and strategy expert with an outstanding record of developing strong customer relationships, solution selling and fostering deep ties within the title and technology communities," Petro said. "His ability to work at all levels of an organization to communicate, align and execute strategy will be vital to our continued success. We are happy to welcome him to the team." Prober & Raphael Welcome New Attorneys to Default Practice Default services law firm Prober & Ra- phael, ALC announced the hiring of attorneys Diana Torres-Brito and Jonathan Vaknin to their Bankruptcy practice and Angela Davtyan to their Collections/Litigation practice. Prior to joining the firm's Bankruptcy practice, Torres-Brito worked at Country- wide Home Loans/Bank of America for close to two decades, where she served as in-house Bankruptcy Counsel prior to holding several management positions within default servicing. She earned her bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley and obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the firm's Bankruptcy practice, Vaknin had his own consumer bank- ruptcy practice representing debtors all over California. Prior to that, he worked at two of the highest volume consumer bankruptcy law firms in San Diego. Vaknin earned a bach- elor's degree at San Francisco State University and a Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2009 and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California. Davtyan worked in the firm's Bankruptcy department for nearly two years before joining Prober & Raphael's Collection/Litigation practice as an Associate and prior to starting law school. She earned her bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge and received her Juris Doctor from Southwest- ern Law School. After law school Davtyan worked in both employment and medical malpractice law before rejoining the firm in her new role as an associate attorney. COLORADO LenderLive Announces New Organizational Structure Domestic-based mortgage services pro- vider, LenderLive, recently announced a new organizational structure that aligns its various business divisions under two broad units— mortgage and services—as well as correspond- ing leadership changes. e two new units are LenderLive Network, LLC (fulfillment, lending, and servicing) and LenderLive Services, LLC (settlement services and LenderLive Docu- ment Services, which now includes Guardi- anDocs and Walz Group). Both report up to

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