Fund News and Alerts

The Fund’s Legal Education Attorney, Kara Scott, presented Real Estate Agent's Guide to Florida’s Condo Safety Laws Post Surfside to a full house at the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors® on April 16. Thank you to Kara and Fund Member Gus Simmons for making this such a successful event!

The Attorneys’ Real Estate Council of Palm Beach County held its annual law symposium with Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors, now branded as Legal Lane Live: Speed Rounds with Attorneys’ Council, on April 15 at Indian Springs Country Club. This event, which has been held for nearly 15 years, attracts 80-100 real estate agents each year to hear presentations from REC member attorneys.

If you have not read the Florida ARECs Blog recently, you need to check it out!  We discuss a variety of topics of interest to REC Member Attorneys, Realtors® and consumers.

Register for the FREE Sept. 4 Webinar, “Form Follows Function: A Title Agent's Guide to Collecting Information for FinCEN,” and find a host of resources to help you be “report-ready” for FinCEN’s new Residential Real Estate Rule. Visit the FinCEN Reporting page today!

To help you find the best closing software “fit” for your office, we’ve created a Closing Software Buyer’s Guide that includes a range of questions like:

When title to real property is held by the trustee of a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT), Fund Members are sometimes surprised that a Commitment involving a QPRT requires review of the QPRT agreement by the title examiner prior to completion of the Commitment. Title issues involving the ability to rely on the Sec. 689.073, F.S., statutory trustee powers, homestead concerns, and who needs to execute the deed from the QPRT, all cannot be determined until the QPRT agreement has been reviewed. To understand why such review is necessary, the Fund Member must first know what a QPRT is to understand the need to “get a jump” on having the QPRT reviewed. The goal of this article is not to delve into the complex tax ramifications of a QPRT, but rather to provide a general understanding of what a QPRT is, how it works, and what is necessary to insure title. Read the article

Issuing a title insurance policy insuring a loan on Florida real property may involve endorsing the loan policy post-closing as construction of improvements on the land progresses. This is where the Construction Loan Update endorsement (CLU) comes into play. Unlike most other endorsements providing affirmative coverage to the policy, the CLU is issued after closing when disbursements from loan funds to pay the contractor, called “draws,” are requested. The CLU is designed to help the lender ensure that its requirements, allowing the periodic payments of the construction loan to the contractor during construction, are met. The Florida version of the CLU is not unique, but the version authorized for use in Florida differs significantly from the American Land Title Association (ALTA) forms used in other parts of the country. Read the article

As a result of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) most recent anti-money laundering effort, a new Residential Real Estate Rule (the Rule) will take effect on Dec. 1, 2025. Many closing agents in certain Florida counties are already familiar with the Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) and have become accustomed to reporting certain cash purchases to FinCEN already. Beginning Dec. 1, 2025, all non-financed transfers to entities or trusts for residential real property in all U.S. states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and Native American land are to be reported to FinCEN, and the reporting requirements under the GTOs will be eliminated. Read the article

By way of background, Florida’s homestead exemption laws have been compared by legal scholars and courts to a chameleon “which changes color to accord with the background against which it is viewed.” Crosby and Miller, Our Legal Chameleon: The Florida Homestead Exemption, 2 U. Fla. L. Rev. 12 (1949). Read the article

You will not want to miss this year’s REC Luncheon at Fund Assembly featuring an intimate Q&A session with Tim M. Cerio, President, CEO & Executive Director of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.