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The merger and the consolidation of the mortgage industry would not only reduce the ability for Latinos to participate in homeownership, the effects could cascade to the overall population writes the CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals

Gary Acosta is the co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. In his capacity as CEO of NAHREP, he created the Hispanic Wealth Project, a non-profit organization with a strategic plan to triple Hispanic household wealth by 2024.

Butch Zemar is the director of benefits at Elite Benefits of America.

A combination of fewer mortgage originations and investment losses for some companies contributed to declines.

The government mortgage-bond insurer's requirements that restrict investor involvement are likely the greatest challenge to finding more purchasers of MSRs, experts said at a servicing conference Monday.

Lee joined the EBN team in 2022, and covers areas including caregiving, employee health and wellness, healthcare innovation, and company culture. She created EBN's popular Benefits in Action and Manager Diaries series, interviewing top leaders from Walmart, AT&T, Aflac, DoorDash, and EY. Her reporting on EBN's podcast, Perk Up!, earned the team a regional silver award from the AZBEE Award of Excellence in 2025. She has also interviewed several winners of EBN's Excellence in Benefits Awards, including top CEOs and CHROs from Hyatt and Hendry Marine Industries. 

Her favorite parts of the job are connecting with people who are passionate about providing great benefits and a positive work environment, and writing about strategies and tools that help them do this. Previously, she taught high school and middle school, and worked as a freelance writer in healthcare and advertising. She has a BA in English from George Mason University.

Martin Gruenberg has been acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. since February and is the longest-serving member of the FDIC board.

More than 30 million homes in the U.S. are mortgage-free, with Florida — which has the highest proportion of retirees — the state with the biggest percentage of free and clear residences, suggesting it's better shielded from a decline in real estate prices.

Grace Ata, AVP of product development at Equisoft has 17+ years of experience in fintech and insurtech, Grace has led the development of several game-changing digital transformation initiatives within the automotive lending sector and Insurance and Wealth Management industries in North America. As AVP, Product Development, Grace brings a deep knowledge of the insurance distribution space and extensive network of industry subject matter experts to lead the strategy and development team working on our core Digital Insurance Agency Platform, Equisoft/centralize.

• Deep knowledge of insurance distribution and its challenges

• Focused on performance and results for on-time, on-budget digital transformation initiatives

• Completed 60+ projects that drive operational efficiencies for financial institutions and MGAs
• Subject matter expert on data utilization including CITS/ACORD data feeds

An active member of CLIEDIS, CAILBA, NAILBA, and FundServ, Grace's exceptional talent rests on her ability to analyze & leverage industry trends to build exceptional high-value products. Passionate about operational excellence, she has successfully helped clients optimize their use of technology to accelerate efficiency, growth and digital transformation. A Bachelor of Science graduate of the University of Waterloo, Grace applies a thorough approach to product development.

Synthetic-ID scammers can use the same techniques they honed for stealing from banks to target consumers facing economic hardships.