ALTA Principles of Fair Conduct

ALTA has published their Principals of Fair Conduct.   It appears to be a good start.  Let me know what you think.  My thoughts to follow.

Professional Liability Carriers Taking a Stand

Independent contractors/Signing Agents are a tool typically used by out of state lenders and title insurance providers. It is my opinion that they are not the right tool for an insured transaction.

There is a limited market for the services of an independent contractor with extensive industry experience and their use should be limited to uninsured transactions. I do not question the time and effort expended by these contractors; however, the mere ability to complete a Notary Acknowledgment does not qualify someone to meet with the consumer.

And the E&O providers must have the same thought, after all, they are privy to the claims that you and I might otherwise never hear of. No longer interested in the risk, the E&O providers are raising the bar. We recently received our application for the renewal of our professional liability coverage (E & O), and we were offered the following options:

Damage Assessment

So the party’s over and it’s time to clean up. What’s the damage?

The land records –clearing title has become a nightmare. Almost every search comes back with an issue. Errors abound and more and more problems will surface. This will be a problem for years to come.

The abstractors – many of the good ones have been driven out of the business by price pressure, or by frustration over demands to cut corners. Years of experience thrown into the shredder. We will feel their loss every time someone has to train a wet behind the ears searcher that there’s more to a title search than printing out the face pages of documents. More frightening, do you know of anyone under the age of 25 who wants to grow up to be an abstractor?

Fast, Cheap or Right?

“You can have it fast, cheap or right – but you can only pick two”

It’s one of my favorite sayings from my years as a consultant.

It highlights the service industry tradeoff between speed, price and quality. We sometimes forget that we can’t have it all.

During the last several years the title industry has been focused on fast and cheap. You couldn’t avoid it. Press releases, marketing copy, ads in trade journals, all shouted: “two day turn around,” “instant commitments,” “lowest cost.”