Operations

While every attorney and every title agency owner has faith that the people they hire are trustworthy and able to do the task before them, it is critical to remain vigilant of the business being conducted by all employees and the processes the company has in place. The Legal Description traveled to the Attorneys Title Insurance Fund’s 49th Annual Assembly and heard Margaret Williams, Fund risk manager, provide tips on how to provide that level of awareness, from pre-hire throughout the staff member’s emp...

Title insurance is complicated, and not just in regard to a consumer’s understanding of the product or policy. The regional differences from state to state remove a universal understanding of the title business that can make certain decisions more complicated and confusing for even the most veteran of title professionals as they start to grow their businesses.  On a recent webinar, Mandrien Consulting tried to demystify these issues a little bit, provide a clearer blue print and pose important ques...

As one of the nation’s largest providers of title insurance and escrow services, Fidelity National Title Group NY Agency is launching “Total Access,” a business-building program that provides top agents with direct access to Fidelity Title Group’s staff, tools and resources.

In this View from the Underwriter column, a rotating series of columns written by various underwriting professionals in the industry, Michael Schefstad, chief financial officer and treasurer of Westcor Land Title Insurance Co., shares his view on how a proper combination of auditing and centralized support enhance an independent agent’s business and the overall relationship with their underwriter.

Much has changed in the way of marketing agreements in the past decade. With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) at the helm, new regulations, an interpretive rule and the volatilities of the market, title insurance, mortgage, real estate and settlement services professionals need to be on alert with how they are structuring marketing agreements. Industry members should also be aware of where the market is headed in terms of business partnerships, alliances and other types of arrangements.

This year’s Voice of the Title Agent special report was the longest one to date — and we still had more content. Here is one of those features: We asked our agent respondents, just after what type of underwriter they prefer to work with: “More specifically, which is your favorite underwriter to work with?” It was an optional, fill-in the blank question.  See what our respondents said. This was just one question amid a variety of title industry related business and opinion questions we asked in the 2...

Attention is a finite resource, and part of being successful is learning how to allocate it wisely. Early in our careers we learn to pinpoint priorities, keep some items on the backburner, and ignore everything else. As contributor Alexander Crompton notes, sometimes it's the very things we start to gloss over in the interest of routine that are the most important.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created, essentially, to make sure all of these financial service providers kept the consumer in mind. That was the easy part — figuring out how to actually do that has been the challenge of regulators and industry professionals the last three years. At the American Land Title Association Federal Conference, RamQuest and Guardian Consumer Services unveiled a new product that they think achieves many of the aims of the CFPB and the industry to provide a new env...

This year’s Voice of the Title Agent special report was the longest one to date — and we still had more content. Here is one of those features. We asked our agent respondents: “Has your E&O insurance policy changed in the last 12 months?” Read on for the results and some additional commentary. This was just one question amid a variety of title industry related business and opinion questions we asked in the 2013 Voice of the Title Agent survey this year. To download your copy of the special report, cl...