Best Practices
Best Practices
As advocates for the title industry, Fortune Title proudly champions the Best Practices established and maintained by the American Land Title Association for title and settlement services. We are proud longtime ALTA members, and Fortune Title can say we meet and exceed the industry standards.
We believe it’s important to know that companies and vendors you partner with care about professional standards as much as you do, which is why we love to talk about our standards with anyone who asks. Our entire team wants our attorney, lender, consumer, investor and Realtor customers to know they will be taken care of when choosing Fortune Title.
ALTA’s Best Practices address the importance of, among other things, maintaining proper licensing, ensuring proper procedures for escrow services, protecting non-public personal information, maintaining proper closing procedures, guaranteeing proper delivery of title insurance policies, being properly insured, and appropriately handling consumer complaints.
Some may view these industry Best Practices as mandates, but Fortune Title sees compliance as a good business protocol that shows transparency to our customers. In fact, many of the procedures we have in place to adhere to ALTA’s Best Practices are ones we’d have in place whether there were formalized guidelines or not. These standards are always evolving, too. They were last updated in 2023 to better address digital closings and data privacy.
Here are the seven Best Practice Pillars from ALTA:
No. 1: The importance of licensing. Establish and maintain current license(s) as required to conduct the business of title insurance and Settlement services. Purpose: Maintaining state mandated insurance licenses and corporate registrations, as required, to ensure compliance with state requirements for operations.
No. 2: Verification and reconciliation of escrow accounts. Adopt and maintain appropriate written procedures and controls for Escrow Trust Accounts allowing for electronic verification of reconciliation. Purpose: Appropriate and effective Escrow controls and staff training help Companies meet federal, state, and contractual requirements for the safeguarding of funds. These procedures help ensure accuracy and minimize the risk of loss of funds. Loss of funds may not be covered by the Title Agency’s Errors and Omissions (“E&O”) insurance or the contract with its Title Insurer.
No 3: Protection of NPI. Adopt and maintain a written information security plan (“WISP”) and a written privacy plan to protect NPI as required by local, state, and federal law. Purpose: Federal and state laws (including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) require title companies to develop a written information security plan (“WISP”) that describes the procedures they employ to protect NPI. The WISP must be appropriate to the company’s size and complexity, the nature and scope of the company’s activities, and the sensitivity of the consumer information a company handles. A company evaluates and adjusts its program considering relevant circumstances, including changes in its business or operations or the results of security testing and monitoring.
No. 4 Understand the importance of compliance. Adopt standard real estate Settlement policies and procedures that help ensure compliance with (i) federal and state consumer financial protection laws and regulations and (ii) contractual obligations as applicable to the settlement process. Purpose: Adopting appropriate policies and procedures, including conducting ongoing employee training, to help ensure the company can meet federal, state, and contractual obligations governing the settlement. These policies and procedures must be appropriate to the locale because consumer financial protection laws may vary from state to state. Appropriate and effective training helps settlement companies safeguard Settlement documents. These procedures help maintain accuracy, minimize errors in completing the settlement, and provide a framework for a positive consumer experience.
No. 5 Following procedure and protocol. Adopt and maintain written procedures related to title policy production, delivery, reporting, and premium remittance. Purpose: Adopting and implementing appropriate procedures for the production, delivery, and remittance of title insurance policies helps ensure companies can meet their legal and contractual obligations.
No 6. The importance of insurance coverage. Maintain appropriate insurance and fidelity coverage. Purpose: Appropriate levels of professional liability insurance or E&O insurance, cyber liability insurance, and crime coverage help ensure a company maintains the financial capacity to stand behind their professional services. Specific types of insurance or coverage may be required by law, regulation, or contractual obligations.
No. 7 Handling customer complaints. Adopt and maintain written procedures for resolving consumer complaints. Purpose: A process for receiving and addressing consumer complaints helps ensure reported instances of poor service or non-compliance do not go undiscovered or unresolved. If you need to make a complaint about us, you can do so by filling out this form or calling us.
