What’s Brewing? Lots of Serious Stuff

Dear Members!

Hope your summer is going well.  There is quite a bit of stuff going on right now - mostly of a dry and technical nature so grab a cup of strong coffee and read on………

FinCEN Residential Reporting Rule.  It's coming sooner than you think (December 1, 2025) and you need to get ready. Kick off your preparation on July 16 with the first of several webinars we will likely host. This 50-minute course will acquaint you with the latest information on the new FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule. It replaces and significantly expands the existing FinCEN GTOs and makes the SETTLEMENT AGENT the primary responsible party to report cash transactions of residential property to FinCEN. It's a must-attend! And it's FREE! Here is a link to register.
https://www.thefund.com/shop/education/webinars/live/so-long-gtos-hello-forever-reporting

New requirements when wiring money.  You may have already encountered this but there are new procedures required when you are wiring funds. I am having trouble getting a clear picture of what exactly has changed but I think it is the template banks use for wire information that has new/different labels (which might cause some confusion). And street addresses are required (no PO Boxes). I suggest you contact your bank and find out if there is a new form or any new procedures they require. Good luck!

Title company impersonations.  We are hearing more frequently about situations in which a "fake" title agency manages to get a real estate agent to send them a contract to close and then reaches out to the buyer to try and get the buyer to wire money to the title agency, which is, of course, a fake and the money gets stolen. They get away with this because the name of the fake agency is very similar to an agency with whom the real estate agent regularly does business! The fake agency is even able to set up a bank account with the EIN of the legitimate agency…because that information is readily available on the Sunbiz site! So here is what I would like you to do.

• If you have a corporate title agency, run a search on Sunbiz to see if an organization with a name similar to yours has been created (recently) and what information is listed. Do they have your personal name in there? Did they copy your EIN number from YOUR Sunbiz data? If they have, then call your local law enforcement folks and see if they will do anything! Let me know what you find out……….
• And if you have already been a victim of this type of scam and are willing to share, please let me know. I will keep that information confidential, I promise!

We want to collect data on how pervasive this problem is so that we can talk to the secretary of state about changing the Sunbiz website to somehow prevent important information from falling into the wrong hands. Thanks!

That's all for this week.  Hope you found it interesting and coffee was not needed.

Let me know how we can help you. 

Melissa Jay Murphy
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer,
and General Counsel