New ALTA Commitment Tidbit

Clarification on Section 4 of the Commitment Jacket; Cyber Fraud News & Tips to Avoid Becoming a Victim

Dear Members,

New ALTA Commitment Tidbit:

Section 4 of the commitment jacket has caused angst - it shouldn't. The reference in Section 4 to “the Company” having the right to amend the commitment allows YOU to act on “the Company’s” behalf because you are its agent. You have the authority, as an agent of Old Republic, to endorse the commitment to make changes, corrections and deletions as long as the endorsement doesn’t violate your dollar approval limit (i.e., you can’t endorse the coverage amount to increase it in excess of your authority limit) or pose an extra hazardous insuring risk ( here’s the link to a October 2016 Fund Concept article where this is fully discussed).

Section 4 does not alter the Company's obligation to insure the "gap." There is a statutory obligation to insure the gap when the requirements of F.S. 627.7841 are met. This language does not allow the Company to get around its statutory obligation.

Cyber Fraud Tidbit:

Beware of unexpected, unexplained emails from what might appear to be trusted folks in the industry, e.g., document signing services, e-recording services. DocuSign, a leader in the electronic document signing arena, was recently hacked and a bunch of bad emails were sent out to unsuspecting folks (including me). Here’s a link to more information on that particular situation.

My message continues to be:

• Do not trust any email that is coming from someone you don't recognize as being involved in a pending transaction in your office.
• It's not a matter of "if" you will be a victim of a fraud attempt, it is a matter of "when." Train yourself and everyone in your office to be alert to possible attempts of fraud.
• Be old-fashioned: PICK UP THE PHONE and call people to verify information.

The ALTA Advocacy Summit in Washington DC was very valuable. I got the chance to work with a great group of agents and underwriters based in Florida as we wandered around (and got lost several times) on Capitol Hill, going to a total of 10 meetings with Senators and Representatives from Florida. Most of the lawmakers were on the floor voting on healthcare reform, but their aides were attentive, intelligent and receptive to our presentations about issues affecting our industry. We focused on CFPB reform and tax reform - more on tax reform in a future email.

Once again, we seem to have survived the Florida Legislative Session relatively unscathed. There were several laws passed that should be of interest to you and we will be bringing you up to speed on those over the summer through emails, my new Podcasts (coming soon!) and other presentations.

Let me know how we can help you.

Best Regards,

Melissa Jay Murphy 
Senior Vice President and General Counsel