We’re excited to share that Pat Theodora, DocMagic’s CEO and Co-Founder, has been honored with a 2025 HousingWire Vanguard Award—recognizing his decades-long leadership and ongoing contributions to digital mortgage innovation.

The HousingWire Vanguard Awards spotlight senior housing leaders who are making a measurable impact across the real estate, mortgage, and finance sectors. Now in its tenth year, the program honors executives whose daily work helps move the industry forward.

Pat brings over 40 years of experience in the mortgage space, starting as a loan officer in 1980 and co-founding DocMagic in 1987. Today, he leads with the forward-thinking, approach that helped establish DocMagic’s reputation as an industry trailblazer.

Under his leadership, over the past year the company has:

• Launched a new unified platform powered by integrated AI
• Enabled the industry’s first electronic HELOC registration with the MERS® eRegistry
• Continued to grow despite market headwinds, with hundreds of new lenders onboarded in the past year

“Pat’s influence on DocMagic and the broader mortgage ecosystem is undeniable,” said Lori Johnson, COO of DocMagic. “He leads with integrity, experience, and vision—consistently challenging us to deliver better outcomes for our clients and the industry at large.”

Pat is a visible presence at major industry events and continues to champion innovation and integrity at every level of the organization. His leadership has helped DocMagic maintain momentum, strengthen partnerships, and deliver technology that keeps lenders competitive.

You can find more information about Pat Theodora here:
? www.housingwire.com

We’re thrilled to share that our very own COO, Lori Johnson, has once again been named to Mortgage Professional America’s Elite Women list for 2025! This recognition highlights 40 outstanding female leaders who are making a lasting impact on the mortgage industry—and we couldn’t be prouder to see Lori among them for the second time.

Lori’s career is a true testament to vision, dedication, and leadership. From her early days as one of the first employees at Document Express to leading its acquisition by DocMagic, she’s never stopped driving innovation. Over the past year, she’s championed operational improvements that have sped up eClosing go-live timelines and cut costs for our clients—proving that efficiency and excellence can go hand in hand.

Her leadership truly shined in 2024, when she navigated us through a major transition with strength, clarity, and care, ensuring that DocMagic continued to grow and innovate. She’s also a committed mentor, inspiring women inside and outside our company to take on new challenges and leadership roles.

We’re grateful for Lori’s vision, resilience, and the positive impact she makes every day—not just here at DocMagic, but across the mortgage technology landscape.

Congratulations, Lori, on this well-deserved honor!

We’re thrilled to share that our very own Nicholas Hartigan, Director of Program Management, has been named a 2025 HousingWire Insider—an honor reserved for the unsung heroes driving innovation and operational excellence in housing.

At DocMagic, Nicholas plays a critical behind-the-scenes role. He oversees our complex project portfolio, working across teams to implement enterprise-level client integrations, drive strategic planning, and ensure we’re delivering with excellence at every step. This year alone, he’s been instrumental in onboarding several top-10 mortgage originators to the DocMagic platform—helping us expand our impact while keeping things running smoothly.

“Nicholas is a force of consistency and clarity, ensuring we deliver on our most complex initiatives without losing sight of the big picture,” said Lori Johnson, DocMagic COO. “His leadership, strategic foresight, and ability to unite teams around a shared vision make him truly deserving of this recognition.”

HousingWire’s Insiders program honors the behind-the-scenes professionals who are essential to their company’s success, and Nicholas exemplifies exactly that. We’re incredibly proud to see his contributions recognized.

Read the full list of honorees on HousingWire’s website.

We’re proud to announce that Tara Klamrowski, our General Counsel, has been recognized as a 2025 HousingWire Woman of Influence. This annual award honors women who are making significant contributions to the housing industry through leadership, innovation, and excellence—and Tara is a standout example of all three.

Since joining DocMagic, Tara has had a profound impact on our organization. In just three years, she has helped us secure two U.S. patents for our AutoPrep™ e-enablement technology, streamlining a process that typically takes a decade into just a few years. She also led the development of our AI policy and risk framework, ensuring our innovations align with both regulatory requirements and our company values.

Tara plays a uniquely strategic role at DocMagic—not only guiding legal risk and compliance, but also supporting product development, managing all legal operations, and strengthening cross-functional collaboration. Her mentorship and ability to translate complex legal concepts into practical business guidance have elevated the way we work across teams.

As our CEO Pat Theodora put it, “Tara’s rare combination of legal insight, technological literacy, and business acumen has made her an indispensable part of our leadership team. She’s not just managing legal risk—she’s enabling innovation and helping define our future.”

We’re honored to see Tara recognized among such an esteemed group of industry leaders. Her contributions continue to shape DocMagic’s growth and help advance the broader housing ecosystem.

The full list of HousingWire’s 2025 Women of Influence can be found here.

Celebrating a Quarter Century of Progress on National ESIGN Day

June 30, 2000, marked a turning point for mortgages. President Clinton signed the ESIGN Act into law that day. This legislation gave electronic records and signatures the same legal weight as handwritten ones.

More than just eSignatures

The ESIGN Act did more than just legalize eSignatures—it paved the way for true digital commerce. The ESIGN Act transformed how we handle agreements. Mortgage closings, car sales, tax filings, and job contracts could be executed in seconds rather than days. The Act also introduced essential consumer protections. These included requirements for consent, record retention, and technology disclosures. These protections helped build the trust that eSigning technologies rely on today.

Our eSign Story

At DocMagic we understood the power of eSignatures and introduced our ClickSign® eSignature solution the same year the ESIGN Act went into effect. Early adoption of eSignature technology influenced how we developed our comprehensive suite of digital mortgage solutions. These solutions enable lenders to carry out fully paperless closings—from initial disclosures to eNotes, eVaulting, and even remote online notarization (RON). eSigning is integrated at every stage of the process. We also developed our proprietary AutoPrep™ solution. This patented technology instantly identifies signature blocks and enables any PDF document for eSignature.

Now, twenty-five years later, digital transactions have become second nature. In fact, since the inception of eSigning, DocMagic’s ClickSign solution has facilitated nearly one billion mortgage-related eSignature transactions. Each transaction has provided a better, faster, and more compliant experience for lenders, settlement service providers, and borrowers.

What’s Next?

As a long-time member of the Electronic Signature & Records Association (ESRA), DocMagic remains deeply engaged in the conversation around the future of digital signatures. From participating in advocacy initiatives to advancing digital mortgage adoption, we’re helping to shape the policies and technologies that will define the next generation of digital transactions.

We’re celebrating National ESIGN Day by recognizing just how far the industry has come—and how far it can still go. If you’re a DocMagic user, you’re already part of the story. If you’re not, now is the perfect time to explore how eSignatures and digital closings can transform your business.

As borrower expectations evolve, lenders are rethinking the home equity process to provide faster, more compliant, and more transparent experiences. That’s why we’re pleased to announce a new partnership with Coviance that delivers exactly that—by integrating DocMagic’s regulatory compliance, document generation, and eSignature technology into Coviance’s digital lending platform.

This powerful collaboration enables you to instantly generate and deliver fully compliant disclosures—including a Loan Estimate—upon application submission. By embedding our lending technology within Coviance’s Online Application, lenders gain a streamlined, automated workflow that reduces time-to-offer while enhancing regulatory precision.

“Coviance’s digital front end combined with DocMagic’s compliance, document generation, and eSignature technology creates automated borrower convenience and accuracy,” said Steve Ribultan, our Director of Business Development. “We’re excited to align with Coviance and add this value to their technology stack.”

This integration supports the rapidly growing home equity market with a scalable, modern solution that improves borrower satisfaction, speeds up the lending process, and delivers measurable efficiency gains for lenders.

We’re proud to partner with Coviance in setting a new standard for what home equity lending can—and should—look like.

Want to learn how DocMagic’s solutions can help transform your own lending workflow? Contact us now.

On Friday, June 6, 2025, Truliant Federal Credit Union utilized DocMagic’s end-to-end eHELOC solution to complete the mortgage industry’s first electronic Home Equity Line of Credit (eHELOC) registration with MERS^®—the national system of record for identifying the controller and location of the authoritative copy of registered eAssets.

This first-ever MERS^® eRegistration of an eHELOC proves that these assets can now be originated, signed, stored, and transferred entirely digitally, paving the way for faster closings, improved liquidity, and more efficient secondary market transactions.

"We have a long tradition of industry firsts, including executing the first eClosings in North Carolina and Massachusetts,” said our Chief eServices Executive Brian D. Pannell. “Registering the first-ever eHELOC with MERS^® reflects our long-standing commitment to our clients and industry partners."

A Leap Forward for Home Equity Lending

DocMagic's eHELOC solution provides a fully paperless process from document generation through eSigning to MERS^® eRegistration and beyond. The solution leverages DocMagic's SmartSAFE™ eVault technology and MISMO's SMART Doc^® format to ensure real-time transparency, legal enforceability, and seamless secondary market transfers.

How eHELOCs benefit you and your borrowers:

• Digitizes the full HELOC lifecycle, eliminating manual paperwork and operational risk
• Enables eSign and eNotarization for borrowers
• Supports legally recognized electronic contracts for eNote and security instruments
• Provides real-time auditability and secure storage via our SmartSAFE™ eVault
• Streamlines investor delivery and servicing transfers

These capabilities allow lenders to offer a faster, more transparent borrower experience, while reducing costs and gaining access to improved funding options.

Making access to home equity more convenient

“We recognized home equity as an ideal area to apply our eClosing expertise,” said Beth Eller, Senior Vice President of Mortgage Services at Truliant. “DocMagic and the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office were instrumental in helping us extend this convenience, efficiency, and security to our members.”

Truliant’s leadership is a powerful example of how credit unions and other lenders can embrace technology to deliver greater value to borrowers—especially at a time when digital convenience and operational agility are critical.

With more than 24 states and Washington, D.C., now adopting UCC Article 12, digital HELOCs are poised for widespread adoption.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall noted "We’ve worked for years to set the legal framework for North Carolina’s vibrant e-commerce culture, and we've been honored to have Truliant and DocMagic as partners in our eClosing initiative for the past five plus years, so we are especially gratified that our state could lead the way in this next step in innovation.

What’s Next?

As adoption of eClosing and eVault technology expands beyond first mortgages into home equity, DocMagic continues to lead with solutions designed to support compliant, scalable, and fully digital transactions.

Ready to explore eHELOCs for your lending operation? Let’s talk.