If a loan amount is decreased because the appraisal value is low, do we have to issue out a new loan estimate with the new lower amount? the fees are actually going to be lower than previously disclosed. must we redisclose?

No you don't have to redisclose.
TRID is like RESPA in that, other than a rate lock, you can still chose when you feel it best to resdisclose.
Given the fact that the borrower now must receive their CD three days prior to closing, they will know in advance what the new numbers are.

do I have to worry about the APR being lower on the final CDF than what was previously disclosed at a higher amount?

No. The TRID rules finally clarified this issue. The only time you would have to redisclose is if the APR increase by more than the allotted amount (.125% or .25%)

To the original question, we would generally redisclose the LE if we weren't in a time crunch to get to closing. We are not required to, but generally the customer wants updated disclosures that show the lower loan and fee amounts.

watch your APR though.....sometimes when you lower the amount the APR actually goes up.

Can I get some opinions on what other lenders are doing regarding these "voluntary" LE redisclosure situations? I'd rather NOT send unnecessary dislosures. Right now we're not redisclosing unless the customer specifically asks. Is there any issue with sending one when a customer asks but not reissuing consistently?

We are not reissuing a new LE when the loan amount and fees go down due to a lower than anticipated value on an appraisal. The new figures are shown on the CloD.

We are not re-disclosing the LE either unless requested by the borrower.

We are re-disclosing "informational" LE's to our borrowers regardless of CC or not. We decided to do this as the CD states at the top to "compare to the LE"- so we want to ensure that our customers have the most recent LE for comparison purposes. We do a cover letter explaining what the changes were. We have gotten no argument from our auditors on this practice.

You mean it doesn't matter what the CC is not that you don't have one, right? Because you still can't redisclose without a valid changed circumstance.
Additionally, you have to be aware of resetting tolerance baselines properly.
Personally, I think papering the borrower with LEs doesn't help them, it only confuses them.

We do not provide a reissue without a valid change of circumstance that would effect us beyond any tolerance limits with the exception of rate lock.