Mortgage brokers who get ahead of compliance will outlast the rest
I founded Pinnacle Mortgage Corp in April 2015, in the middle of one of the most uncertain regulatory stretches our industry has seen. There were FAQs, but they were vague. There was real risk in simply not knowing what compliance required until it was too late. Ten years later, heading into 2026, I am watching a similar kind of uncertainty build again around the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and I think every broker who wants to grow needs to plan for it now, not after the next audit.
Learn the rules before an audit teaches them to you
The mortgage collapse of 2008 happened, in part, because too many originators grew fast without understanding what they were required to do. I have spent close to two decades involved with national industry groups, and that involvement gave me the education to act before making a mistake, rather than after getting caught. We built Pinnacle on that same principle: understand the requirement before you are supposed to know it.
Groups like the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) and the Broker Action Coalition (BAC), where I serve as Northeast Regional Chair, exist for exactly this reason. They give independent brokers and small shops the education they need to comply, and they create a safer landscape for the borrowers and homeowners on the other side of every transaction. I have seen shops around us grow quickly, only to spend the next two years playing catch-up with regulators. That is not a position any broker wants to be in.
