Best Practices

Resources > Best Practices

Keeping You in the Game

Implementing ALTA's best practices can help title professionals meet market demands by ensuring regulatory compliance, protecting funds and information, and capturing a larger market share to keep you in the game.

ALTA Best Practices 4.0 Framework
ALTA Best Practices 4.0 Framework: Assessment Procedures

Lender Requirements

Lenders are vetting settlement agents in a wide variety of ways. Make sure your practice meets Best Practices standards and is prepared to address the lenders' requirements.

Suggested Actions for Fund Members:

Review your practice and volume with specific lenders.
Review lender requirements with the Bank Requirement Chart and consider setting up Google Alerts for lender updates.
Decide on the level of requirements appropriate for your practice per the Lender Requirement Scale.
If 3rd party certification is needed, ensure AT LEAST 90-day lead time for the review period and 6-8 months to complete.

Lender Requirement Complexity Scale

Find out how difficult it is to obtain different Lender Best Practice requirements - Download

LOW

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COMPLEXITY

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HIGH

1 Old Republic Authorized Agent Letter

2 Settlement Agent Self-Certification

3 Copy of Best Practices Manual

4 Settlement Agent Self-Certification
with ALTA Certification package

5 Lender-Specific Requirements
E.g. questionnaire, financial statements, business license, E&O, review AfBAs

6 Secure Insight/SSI Vendors Compliance Group

7 3rd-Party Certification

The 7 Pillars of ALTA's Best Practices

Licensing - Establish and maintain current License(s) as required to conduct the business of title insurance and settlement services.

Escrow/Trust Account - Adopt and maintain appropriate written procedures and controls for Escrow Trust Accounts allowing for electronic verification of reconciliation.

Privacy & Information Security - Adopt and maintain a written privacy and information security plan to protect Non-public Personal Information as required by local, state and federal law.

Settlement Processes - Adopt standard real estate settlement procedures and policies that help ensure compliance with Federal and State Consumer Financial Laws as applicable to the Settlement process.

Title Policy Procedures - Adopt and maintain written procedures related to title policy production, delivery, reporting and premium remittance.

Professional Liability Insurance - Maintain appropriate professional liability insurance and fidelity coverage.

Resolving Consumer Complaints - Adopt and maintain procedures for resolving consumer complaints.

Get the materials, documents and other resources that will assist you in implementing ALTA's Best Practices for your agency.

On-Demand Training

Video - Building the Pillars of ALTA’s Best Practices Workshop I - Watch Now

Are Lenders asking you for a copy of your Best Practices Policies and Procedures Manual? If so, it’s time to attend Building the Pillars of ALTA’s Best Practices – Workshop I. The workshop is designed to give you a jump-start on the creation and documentation of your personalized Best Practices Policies and Procedures Manual.   This workshop reviews: Pillar 1 - Licensing Pillar 6 - Professional Liability Insurance Pillar 7 - Resolving Consumer Complaints  The workshop details Florida specific requirements for each of the three pillars. This workshop is bookmarked by Pillar to allow you to review an example of each and draft your own individual policies, procedures, and logs at your own pace. Supporting Materials
Video - Building the Pillars of ALTA’s Best Practices Workshop II - Watch Now

This workshop continues the Fund’s examination of ALTA’s Best Practices, detailing Florida-specific requirements for: Pillar 2 - Escrow / Trust Accounting Pillar 4 - Recording & Pricing Procedures Pillar 5 - Title Policy Procedures As with Workshop I, this course reviews examples of Best Practices procedures and allows you to draft your own individual policies, procedures, and logs at your own pace. Workshops I & II can be taken in any order, and neither is a prerequisite for the other. Supporting Materials
Video - Introduction to ALTA’s Best Practices - Watch Now

As the real estate market continues to recover and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau creates new rules related to real estate closings, the landscape in which title insurance agents conduct business continues to evolve. The American Land Title Association (“ALTA”) has established Best Practices to help title agents highlight their own procedures and policies implemented to protect lenders and consumers. Lenders may require title agents comply with Best Practices in the future. ALTA’s Best Practices 2.0 is built upon a foundation of seven pillars related to protection of privacy, compliance and consumer protection. This webinar is designed to assist Fund Members with documenting their own policies and procedures and work towards Best Practices compliance. Supporting Materials

Helpful Links

Authorized Agent Letter

A Fund Member’s status as an Old Republic agent in good standing may be verified by visiting oldrepublictitle.com, selecting Agent Verification from the Services/Products dropdown and entering The Fund Member’s Old Republic Agent Number.

ALTA

Stay Up-to-Date at alta.org

Standardized ALTA Settlement Statements

ALTA Best Practices 4.0 Framework

Three-Day Closing Disclosure Chart

Questions

Send us your questions and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Help us learn about the issues you are encountering in your practices, which in turn guides how we can best support you.

Email: LegalEd@TheFund.com